Striker - Free Agent
25 May 2032
Tuesday
Process

Marked for

228 Edition

The Persebaya Gazette

9 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Paulo Gali hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Persebaya can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Only the photograph left for Syahrian Nugroho

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Syahrian Nugroho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persebaya the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Jefferson 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 Persebaya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Persebaya

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Risto Mitrevski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Boardroom

The Persebaya debt reaches $24.9M

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.

The dugout

Idan Dadya gets picked when it counts

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 Idan Dadya is on it.

The dugout

Pedro Matos knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Persebaya, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout

No hiding place for Yosuke Kamada

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yosuke Kamada, and the manager let it.

Market

The Mihailo Perović story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mihailo Perović signs something — a contract at Persebaya or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

Back issues
219 Edition

The Persebaya Gazette

7 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Risto Mitrevski out for 58 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persebaya will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Boardroom

Persebaya put Rachmat Riyadi on notice

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.

Squad

Jefferson 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 Persebaya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

The owner puts $236.1K into Persebaya

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.

The dugout

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Boardroom

Persebaya cannot sign anybody

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.

Squad

Home is on a squad player's mind

“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; Persebaya are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

The dugout

When it matters, Njabulo Blom plays

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.

Market

Still no ink between Persebaya and Miloš Raičković

“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Persebaya, another week without a signature from Miloš Raičković.

In brief