Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Čumić 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jacques Thémopelé signs something — a contract at PSM or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Victor Dethan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at PSM can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rizky Eka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 85, against Persija, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PSM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Semen Padang had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It needed Sheriddin Boboev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Semen Padang, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
In brief
The dugoutLuka Čumić has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PSM can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gianluca Pandeynuwu is living that version at PSM, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rizky Eka 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.
Nobody at PSM 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PSM can pretend not to have heard.
Jacques Thémopelé 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Victor Luiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Čumić 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.
PSM asked and VVV-Venlo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jacques Thémopelé, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Rizky Irawan to a room that had heard them before.
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 Njabulo Blom is on it.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Hilman Syah: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 64 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
1 for Sávio, marked 7.66, 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.
Dušan Lagator 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Victor Luiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 15 actions, 7.52, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Čumić 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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.90 for the rest of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around PSM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Aloísio Soares 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Luka Čumić 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.
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Rizky Irawan, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 PSM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Luka Čumić 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.
PSM asked and Deportes Quindio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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 0‑3 Rizky Irawan left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hilman Syah, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Victor Dethan is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The words a physio says slowly. 81 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around PSM people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Luka Čumić 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSA have kept their man, and PSM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Victor Dethan'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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dušan Lagator trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at PSM 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.
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Hilman Syah 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Luca Claassen 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason PSM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at PSM can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Aloísio Soares 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Prince Kallon is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
138 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. PSM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Aloísio Soares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Luca Claassen 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. PSM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sheriddin Boboev provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 for Njabulo Blom, marked 7.89, 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.
Joaquín Canadell 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Claassen 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Rizky Irawan on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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 PSM, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Luka Čumić 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.
“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 PSM know it.
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.
In brief
The dugoutDušan Lagator is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PSM can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Čumić 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Luka Čumić 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.
Aloísio Soares 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at PSM, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.