Marked for Thijs Jansen
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ikki Kawasaki
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSIM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Jun 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market14 Jun 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and PSIM know it.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
PSIM asked and Torreense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Ninety minutes of Anton Fase at his very best
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at PSIM.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Adrián Dalmau did the work nobody counts — 7.10
10 combined actions and 7.10. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at PSIM
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rio Hardiawan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Thijs Jansen
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 May 2027
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSIM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 May 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at PSIM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match29 May 2027
7 matches without a win for PSIM
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around PSIM are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom31 May 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at PSIM
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at PSIM is running low.
Squad31 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSIM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at PSIM can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match29 May 2027
PSIM leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match29 May 2027
1‑2 to Maluku Utara United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2027
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSIM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad10 May 2027
A falling-out at PSIM
Franco Ramos Mingo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match8 May 2027
A bad afternoon for PSIM against Arema
0‑1 to Arema, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Yuda Editya did the work nobody counts — 6.68
9 combined actions and 6.68. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thijs Jansen, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 May 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andri Putra after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad10 May 2027
A row about effort at PSIM
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fahreza Sudin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 May 2027
Harlan Suardi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at PSIM will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Mar 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at PSIM
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jop van der Avert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Anwar Rifai 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 PSIM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 Mar 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.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
Wages eat 92% of everything PSIM earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Jia Weiwei has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at PSIM will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market29 Mar 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nermin Haljeta signs something — a contract at PSIM or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Fahreza Sudin knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fahreza Sudin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The penny has dropped for Yuda Editya
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at PSIM the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
A defender's goal wins it for PSIM — 7.58
1 for Anwar Rifai, marked 7.58, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Tempers go at PSIM
Franco Ramos Mingo 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
PSIM come up short against Persija
Persija left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at PSIM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rio Hardiawan 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Everybody at PSIM saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 39 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Andy Setyo
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
A promise honoured for Anwar Rifai
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. PSIM told Anwar Rifai something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and PSIM will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Mar 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; PSIM are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSIM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at PSIM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jop van der Avert 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Marked 8.25 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Thijs Jansen
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad15 Mar 2027
8 new faces, and PSIM are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Match13 Mar 2027
It needed Zé Valente to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against PSM, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Half-satisfied: Andri Putra on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Feb 2027
PSIM taken apart
0‑4 to Bali United, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSIM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSM have kept their man, and PSIM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout15 Feb 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
20 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
Inquest at PSIM
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad15 Feb 2027
9 new faces, and PSIM are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Andri Putra left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Franco Ramos Mingo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.