Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bali United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Bali United have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bali United can pretend not to have heard.
Tim Haksteeg and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Aug 2036
Words at Bali United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Onyedika 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.
10 matches without a win, and then this, against Bhayangkara Presisi. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Everything agreed with PSBS Biak, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Madura United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Madura United asked and Bali United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Aug 2036
Words at Madura United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Junior Dos Reis Borges 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.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dewa United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 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 Dewa United can pretend not to have heard.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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. Bali United have kept their man, and Dewa United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Semen Padang will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Mauro Zijlstra 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.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persija have kept their man, and Semen Padang go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Persijap have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Wahyu Darmawan. The answer from Semen Padang has not changed — yet.
The dugout11 Aug 2036
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 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Guy Bar is in the works
BoardroomWages swallow 86% of the Semen Padang income
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bali United people have started saying his name in the past tense.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bali United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Guy Bar reports back to Bali United with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jay Enem provided it, and the 9.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Bali United, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Persita for Guy Bar 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bali United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Madura United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Gustavo Medina 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bali United have kept their man, and Madura United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Words at Madura United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Lança 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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bali United keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arkhan Kaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bali United have kept their man, and Semen Padang go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arema waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bali United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Tim Haksteeg and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Jun 2036
Words at Bali United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Tahaui 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 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 Bali United know it.
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.
The deal with Persis is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Lança was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
António Indami 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings23 Jun 2036
Gabriel Lança was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Maluku Utara United for Wahyu Darmawan 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 Semen Padang 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 Arkhan Kaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
“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.
Bali United have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout23 Jun 2036
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Semen Padang dressing room was either.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bali United people have started saying his name in the past tense.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Madura United asked and Bali United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout16 Jun 2036
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Semen Padang lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Persik were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Semen Padang have done the hard part with Bali United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Semen Padang had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Bali United, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ollie Leeming and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Jun 2036
Arkhan Kaka 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.
Semen Padang asked and Bali United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Andri Supriadi 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.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dewa United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
“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; Dewa United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bali United have kept their man, and Dewa United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
20 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Bali 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 Bali United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.94, and 2 involvements.
Tim Haksteeg and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 May 2036
Words at Bali United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Tahaui 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tim Haksteeg
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 24 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Bali United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bali United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Bali United know it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bali United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Onyedika was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bali United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bali United, another week without a signature from Thiago.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Liran Hazan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Persijap in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bali United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Raphael van Geelkerken scored in the 88th minute, Bhayangkara Presisi had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Bali United took the lot.
Raphael Onyedika 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bali United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Bali United know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adam Tahaui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
“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.
Ivar Jenner 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bali United have kept their man, and Dewa United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
7 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 124 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bali United people have started saying his name 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 Bali United can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bali United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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; Bali United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valenciano Perseit was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Panagiotis Kikianis 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Panagiotis Kikianis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
BoardroomThe Bali United production line keeps running
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and PSBS Biak waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dewa United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Martim Martins 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bali United have kept their man, and Dewa United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dewa United, another week without a signature from Toni Firmansyah.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dewa United would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Madura United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom21 Jan 2036
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Madura United
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“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 Madura 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 Madura United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Junior Dos Reis Borges was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $28.2M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Semen Padang have done the hard part with Bali United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Persija keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Arkhan Kaka 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bali United have kept their man, and Semen Padang go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mauro Zijlstra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
113 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Semen Padang lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Semen Padang is running low.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Persijap waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Semen Padang is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bali United keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Arkhan Kaka 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $22.4M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Position 3, 85 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Guilherme Batista is living that version at Bali United, and it tends to show in the first month.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Bali United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bali United 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 Ammar Ramadan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bali United, another week without a signature from Ryan Guilherme.
Gustavo Garcia is 33 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.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persib lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Persib can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Abdelhafiz 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Persib, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Persib 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 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 Bali United know it.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Bali United will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Words at Bali United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Geypens 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.
7 goals in 32 games at Bhayangkara Presisi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Bali United updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bali United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Position 2, 86 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Emilian Metu is living that version at Persib, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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 Persib know it.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Abdelhafiz 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 squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Remiyan Muthuccumaru was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Rick Dijks 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.
Mohammad Al-Husseini 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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
11 new faces, and Bali United 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Bali United will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bali United, another week without a signature from Matheus Araújo.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Persib is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bali United people have started saying his name in the past tense.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Bali United will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Words at Bali United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Panagiotis Kikianis 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.
“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 Persib, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Persib people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Abdelhafiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Tomas Sovelius has come up in conversations Persib were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A 1‑0 win over Bhayangkara Presisi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
In brief
Player ratingsIustin Doicaru was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Two goals and a mark of 9.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 2, 49 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Remiyan Muthuccumaru provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persib 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 Persib is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iustin Doicaru was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bali United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bali United can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Guilherme was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tim Geypens. 2‑0 against Persita, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.16 — 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 words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iustin Doicaru provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Persib can pretend not to have heard.
Day 39 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Benjamin Casparij 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.
“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; Persib are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bali United can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Milan Wilson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bali United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Bali United had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“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 Bali United know it.
Panagiotis Kikianis 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Guilherme was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bali United, another week without a signature from Ryan Guilherme.
93 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bali United is running low.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aodhan Sopala will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bali United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bali United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at Bali 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.
In brief
Loan watchGuy Bar’s loan is measured in nothing happening
“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 Bali United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Park Ju-young will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bali United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Bali United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Guilherme was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
27 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad20 Nov 2034
6 new faces, and Bali United 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.
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 Rafael Struick is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Park Ju-young will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bali United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bali United 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 Panagiotis Kikianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
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 Rafael Struick is on it.
6 clean sheets from 34 appearances at Dewa United. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 44 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“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.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Victor Dethan 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 Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. PSM had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivar Jenner was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
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.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and Dewa United are still learning each other