Marked for Jefferson
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Sep 2027
21 goals and a season average of 7.54. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad6 Sep 2027
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 9 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Persis until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Persis
Nahuel Curcio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Dimitri falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Loan watch6 Sep 2027
“Three loans in three years. At some point a club has to decide if I am their player or their asset.” The spell at PSM continues; the message travels home.
Match4 Sep 2027
Dewa United made Persis work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
In brief
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Nahuel Curcio at his very best
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The dugout
No hiding place for Cyrus Margono
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Jun 2027
A 2-goal lead gone for Persis
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Persita kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Persis will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Dimitri beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 32. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
A brace, and Dejan Tumbas takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dejan Tumbas provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market7 Jun 2027
Sutanto Tan hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Persis can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Jun 2027
Dewa United come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Persis did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Persis may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Persis have done the hard part with Colón, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Persis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Curcio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Persis
Luka Dumančić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Jefferson keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” PSM may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Mar 2027
At 20, Sayed Abu Farchi is already the best thing here
An average of 7.07 in a first team he is several years too young for. PSM have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A falling-out at PSM
Aloísio Soares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 Mar 2027
A bad afternoon for PSM against PSIM
0‑1 to PSIM, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Rizky Eka gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Agung Saddil to a room that had heard them before.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at PSM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henhen Herdiana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Persijap waiting with a shirt. Nobody at PSM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Dewa United; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at PSM
Hilman Syah was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borneo have kept their man, and PSM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market11 Jan 2027
The name of Sheriddin Boboev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. PSM say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
When it matters, Yuran Lopes plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A new face in his position, and Daisuke Sakai suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. PSM have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Hilman Syah in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad4 Jan 2027
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Persis: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Henhen Herdiana is on it.
Market4 Jan 2027
The Luka Čumić story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luka Čumić signs something — a contract at PSM or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Open for business: PSM enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
Persis say no — this time
The offer from Persebaya for Abu Kamara was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Persis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitri is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Persis
Luka Dumančić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market4 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: PSM have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jefferson. The answer from Persis has not changed — yet.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Sutanto Tan gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Persija: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan move for Nahuel Curcio is in the works
Persis have made the call to Colón. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Almagro have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.