Marked for Lucas Streit
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom22 Nov 2027
Pressure builds in the PSM boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Dušan Lagator: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PSM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A row about effort at PSM
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Theo Leeming was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“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.
Market22 Nov 2027
The name of Daisuke Sakai keeps appearing in other people's back pages. PSM say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at PSM. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Fábio Mondoni knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fábio Mondoni trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad22 Nov 2027
The training reports on Lucas Streit are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
In brief
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Match
Nothing left to play for but pride at PSM
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Squad
Hilman Syah is out on the grass again
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Loan watch
Decision time nears on Muhammad Arfan
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Sep 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
3‑0, and Theo Leeming took the headlines on an afternoon when everything PSM tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match18 Sep 2027
11 unbeaten for PSM
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation PSM did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Lucas Streit, 20, steals the show — 7.97
Marked 7.97 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A falling-out at PSM
Aloísio Soares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yuran Lopes, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jul 2027
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match19 Jul 2027
Every point is an argument now for PSM
Position 17 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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.
Match17 Jul 2027
5 matches without a win for PSM
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around PSM are no longer polite ones.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Arema come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and PSM did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at PSM
Aloísio Soares 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Luka Čumić 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
PSM asked and Fortuna Sittard said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 4 in, 2 out at PSM
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market1 Feb 2027
The deal that would have taken Fahrul Aditia to Persijap has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to PSM with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Everything agreed with Bali United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
An offer of $190.0K for Alwi Slamat
PSM have gone to Maluku Utara United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market1 Feb 2027
As if he never left: Lucas Streit returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Lucas Streit is a PSM player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Lucas Streit gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lucas Streit has just signed for PSM, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Hilman Syah in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
No deal for Sutanto Tan at that price
PSM offered $58.0K; Persis said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at PSM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Lagator 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.