“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Semen Padang can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rosyad Setiawan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Semen Padang, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Zidane Afandi
“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; Semen Padang are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ângelo Meneses 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 dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ravy Tsouka'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 Rui Rampa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Semen Padang 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.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kazaki Nakagawa 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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Stan Bouwens 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
103% of the income goes out in wages at Semen Padang
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.
Rosyad Setiawan 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
Ravy Tsouka 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Armando Oropa 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 year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Semen Padang would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nobody at Semen Padang 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Semen Padang have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ângelo Meneses was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody at Semen Padang 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rui Rampa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Semen Padang would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Firman Juliansyah may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
A programme of his own, away from the group, aimed at one thing the staff think is holding him back. Most improvement happens like this and none of it makes the paper.
“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; Semen Padang are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kazaki Nakagawa 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.
Stan Bouwens 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.
Madura United next, and one man in the Semen Padang dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Semen Padang know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.