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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persijap will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Persijap close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 0 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.
Tiri 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.
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 Iker Guarrotxena is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raia Irvanza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Tiri 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.
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 Iker Guarrotxena is on it.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Persijap than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Borja Martínez signs something — a contract at Persijap or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Persijap enter the window
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persijap will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sendri Johansyah, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Persijap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raia Irvanza 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 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 Rakhmatsho Rakhmatzoda is on it.
“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 Persijap, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raia Irvanza 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Persijap. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.