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.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Apr 2028
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Persis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ricky Putra after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Persis $12.0K. Sutanto Tan left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
1‑3 to Bali United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Mar 2028
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ricky Putra after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Dejan Tumbas
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Feby Eka Putra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Persis close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tristán Suárez have kept their man, and Persis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.04 — 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.
A date was given and it came and went. Nobody upstairs will call it a broken promise, and nobody downstairs will call it anything else for a long time.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Parana is saying, and nobody at Persis is enjoying the guessing.
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. Iquique have kept their man, and Persis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Persis have made the call to Tristán Suárez. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jan 2028
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.
Persis asked and Nacional 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Rizky Pellu is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Nobody at Persis 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.
Jano Coronel 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Sho Yamamoto for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Persis will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abu Kamara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Arkhan Kaka is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Persis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Jano Coronel 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 Dimitri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Arkhan Kaka is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Persis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Jano Coronel 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.
Squad1 Nov 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Persis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A strip of cloth that decides nothing on the pitch and tells the dressing room whose opinion counts. The manager has made a statement without making one.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Jano Coronel 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 Dimitri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Eky Taufik Febriyanto has his answer from Persis; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Persis 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jano Coronel. 3‑1 against PSBS Biak, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Arkhan Kaka has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
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.
1‑5 to Persija, 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.
Persis had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dewa United, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Persis and Persija in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad30 Aug 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Persis deserved better, and so did he.
The offer from Persijap for Arkhan Kaka 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 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.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bali United had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Marked 9.59 — 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 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. Alvarado have kept their man, and Persis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Luka Dumančić 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ricky Putra kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luka Dumančić 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.
PSIM left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 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 1‑2 Ricky Putra left the room before anybody could ask which.
Persebaya next, and one man in the Persis dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Persis had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Arema, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Add another name to the list: Persib have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sutanto Tan. The answer from Persis has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Arkhan Kaka is on it.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Luka Dumančić 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.
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.
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 Arkhan Kaka is on it.
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.
Luka Dumančić 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.
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.
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 Arkhan Kaka is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Irsyad Maulana has written the date down.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
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.
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.
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 Arkhan Kaka is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Persis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
Luka Dumančić 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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Persis has been clear about where Rian Miziar stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Persis 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Persis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Persis, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Persis the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 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 Persis can pretend not to have heard.
Persis had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Flamengo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rachmat Arhan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Dimitri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Irfan Jauhari