“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 The request is on a desk at Dewa United, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dewa United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marked 9.99 — 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Dewa United, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Henrique 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.
Persijap left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout12 May 2031
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Bagas Firmansyah to a room that had heard them before.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dewa United told Raia Irvanza something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dewa United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christianno will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dewa United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ramon Tanque 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Dewa United are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It needed Raz Twizer to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Bhayangkara Presisi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marked 9.56 — 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.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Raz Twizer 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dewa United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.77 — 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.
“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 Dewa United know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raz Twizer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dewa United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dewa United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raz Twizer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dewa United asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dewa United can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Carlos Correa has agreed terms with Bali United for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persijap have kept their man, and Dewa United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Yuval Piven 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 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 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 Sonny Stevens is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dewa United can pretend not to have heard.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Muhammad Iqbal has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Guilherme Henrique is living that version at Dewa United, and it tends to show in the first month.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nick Kuipers was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Dewa United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raz Twizer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Dewa United will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Nobody at Dewa United 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dewa United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Sonny Stevens is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Usman Audu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dewa United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Noah Sadaoui 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.
Raz Twizer 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dewa United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raz Twizer 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dewa United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raz Twizer 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dewa United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dewa United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dewa United can pretend not to have heard.
Dewa United asked and Dinamo Zagreb 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dewa United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Savio Sheva 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dewa United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Dewa United, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dewa United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dewa United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventude have kept their man, and Dewa United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dewa United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dewa United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Dewa United can tell you which week it ends in.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dewa United can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Umar Nawaz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dewa United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rexo Dolby is living that version at Dewa United, and it tends to show in the first month.
PSM will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Victor Dethan has pre-agreed a move to Dewa United, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.