Marked for Arkhan Kaka
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Persis told to sell
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A move Alex Jojo would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alex Jojo is living that version at Persis, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Persis
Irsyad Maulana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 190% of everything Persis 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alex Jojo and Persis agree another 3 years.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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 Miroslav Maričić is on it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Arkhan Kaka 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
The shop window has Abu Kamara in it
Persis have let the market know Abu Kamara can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Persis
Vukašin Vraneš 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Vukašin Vraneš is on it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Arkhan Kaka
“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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Persik in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Andrei Alba goes up and wins it — 7.80
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 7.80 for the rest of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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; Persis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Persis
Vukašin Vraneš 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abu Kamara. 2‑1 against PSBS Biak, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
265% of the income goes out in wages at Persis
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Persis are still strangers to each other
9 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Bagus Sulaeman could afford to be generous.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Miroslav Maričić has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match12 Sep 2026
A hiding for Persis
Beaten 0‑3 by Persija, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market14 Sep 2026
The PSM deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Arkhan Kaka reports back to Persis with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Persis
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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Persis asked and Sabadell said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Muhammad Supriadi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Doors closed at Persis
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Bagus Sulaeman to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Septian Bagaskara, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
The Persija deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Sutanto Tan reports back to Persis with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 9 in, 2 out at Persis
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Sutanto Tan is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Persis has been clear about where Sutanto Tan stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Sutanto Tan
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Persis 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Persis
Feby Eka Putra 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
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Persis
1‑2 against Persib, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There were 8 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Persis have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad31 Aug 2026
14 days out for Pratama Pratama after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market31 Aug 2026
Rian Miziar 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Persis — 7.71
1 for Wbeymar Angulo, marked 7.71, 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Nueva Chicago keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market31 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Sutanto Tan again, and this time the name on the line is Persija. Persis are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad17 Aug 2026
29 days out for Pratama Pratama after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Persis say no — this time
The offer from PSM 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Coritiba is saying, and nobody at Persis is enjoying the guessing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Persis
Vukašin Vraneš 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Persis
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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sabadell have kept their man, and Persis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Dejan Tumbas’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Persis.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bagus Sulaeman on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.