Marked for Bimo Sulaeman
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom24 Sep 2029
Pressure builds in the Persib boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match24 Sep 2029
The season ends: position 11 for Persib
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 46 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
Bimo Sulaeman: 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.” Persib have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match22 Sep 2029
4 matches without a win for Persib
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Persib are no longer polite ones.
Market24 Sep 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dimas Kurniawan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persib the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match22 Sep 2029
4 matches without a goal for Persib
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Boardroom24 Sep 2029
The numbers do not look good at Persib
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Match22 Sep 2029
Still nobody has beaten Persib
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at Persib
Ebuka Ogbonna 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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Eliano Reijnders runs at them all day
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Squad
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The team sheet said everything about Marc Klok
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 May 2029
Persib through in the cup
A 2‑1 win over Madura United, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad21 May 2029
A fracture rules Dimas Drajad out for 74 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persib will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings21 May 2029
Bimo Sulaeman, 19, steals the show — 8.06
Marked 8.06 at 19, 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 ratings21 May 2029
Rodrigo, 35, rolls back the years — 8.57
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.57 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad21 May 2029
Words exchanged at Persib
Uilliam Barros 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.
The terraces21 May 2029
At 22 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.
Match19 May 2029
Persebaya left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danijel Lončar 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 dugout21 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Danijel Lončar
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Nov 2028
“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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Persib
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beckham Putra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Persib
Nadeo Argawinata and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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 Federico Barba is on it.
Market27 Nov 2028
The Berguinho story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Berguinho signs something — a contract at Persib or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Dimas Drajad asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nadeo Argawinata has written the date down.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The manager plants his flag on Uilliam Barros
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Uilliam Barros’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
The Persib production line keeps running
32 graduates out of an academy now rated 11 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Persib
Uilliam Barros 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.
Market6 Nov 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Beckham Putra has his answer from Persib; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market6 Nov 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Persib, another week without a signature from Arthur Augusto.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
Uilliam Barros has become a man the manager trusts
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.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Syahrian Abimanyu, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Persib will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Market6 Nov 2028
A loan that did nothing for Bimo Sulaeman
2 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Persib no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“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.
Market6 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Thom Haye’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Persib may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persib this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch23 Oct 2028
“I did not go to Persija to sit and watch. I want to come back to Persib and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 41 matches say the rest.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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 dugout23 Oct 2028
Thom Haye has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Market23 Oct 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Andrew Jung’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match25 Sep 2028
Full time on the season at Persib
Position 10 on 49 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Squad25 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persib this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Beckham Putra 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.
Loan watch25 Sep 2028
“I did not go to Persija to sit and watch. I want to come back to Persib and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 37 matches say the rest.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The team sheet said everything about Danijel Lončar
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Danijel Lončar.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Marked 7.32 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Persib had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Thom Haye 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 Thom Haye is on it.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Danijel Lončar dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Sep 2028
Alaaeddine Ajaraie 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Persija
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Radovan Pankov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match16 Sep 2028
Persija come up short against PSM
PSM left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match16 Sep 2028
The run is over for Persija
4 matches without defeat, and then PSM. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bagus Irawan after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
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 Alexander Jeremejeff is on it.
Squad18 Sep 2028
One booking too many, and Radovan Pankov sits out. Persija lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Irfan Jauhari, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Aug 2028
25 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Persib — 7.82
1 for Eliano Reijnders, marked 7.82, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
A row about effort at Persib
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beckham Putra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persib this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2028
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Arthur Augusto now has 14 of them across 157 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
Loan watch28 Aug 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Persib, and 1 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jul 2028
54 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Persib
Uilliam Barros and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Nobody could get near Rizky Eka
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch31 Jul 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Persib, and 1 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Persib
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimas Drajad was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
Thom Haye 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 Thom Haye is on it.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dimas Drajad, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Hendro Hidayat chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 41. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match29 Jul 2028
Persija through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Maluku Utara United, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match26 Jul 2028
Persija march on in the cup
Maluku Utara United are out and Persija go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Carlos Eduardo: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Bruno Tubarão, 33, rolls back the years — 7.98
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match29 Jul 2028
The run at home goes on for Persija
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Market31 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Ady Setiawan
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ady Setiawan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persija the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match29 Jul 2028
4 matches without a win for Persija
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Persija are no longer polite ones.
Match29 Jul 2028
7 unbeaten for Persija
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Persija did not have in the autumn.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Uilliam Barros
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persib lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match1 Jul 2028
The wait goes on for Persib
12 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.
Market3 Jul 2028
“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.
Market3 Jul 2028
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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persib this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Saddil Ramdani 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.
Player ratings3 Jul 2028
Berguinho was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
Loan watch3 Jul 2028
“I did not go to Persija to sit and watch. I want to come back to Persib and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to Pro Vercelli: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
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Boardroom
8 new boys at the Persib academy
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Match
Honours even between Persib and Borneo
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The dugout
Thom Haye has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jun 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Uilliam Barros
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persib lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 38. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match3 Jun 2028
The wait goes on for Persib
8 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.
Match3 Jun 2028
The goals have deserted Persib
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Persib can tell you which week it ends in.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Market5 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rezaldi Hehanusa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persib the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Layvin Kurzawa and Persib agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persib this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
No hiding place for Rizky Eka
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rizky Eka, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Jun 2028
13 unbeaten for Persija
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation Persija did not have in the autumn.
Match3 Jun 2028
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Persija scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.77 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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 Persija, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Ady Setiawan
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ady Setiawan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persija the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persija this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 Jun 2028
The phone has started ringing about Rizky Ridho again, and this time the name on the line is Persita. Persija are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match3 Jun 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Alexander Jeremejeff’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Persija.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings22 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 42. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match17 May 2028
Persija march on in the cup
Semen Padang are out and Persija go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match20 May 2028
Whatever happens, Persija do not lose
11 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market22 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Persija is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 May 2028
Words exchanged at Persija
Alexander Jeremejeff 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.
The terraces22 May 2028
He is 15 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jordi Amat, and the manager let it.
Squad22 May 2028
The medical room confirms 35 days on the sidelines for Ricky Asnawi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad22 May 2028
Rizky Ridho 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 May 2028
148 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.
Market8 May 2028
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.
Squad8 May 2028
A falling-out at Persib
Uilliam Barros and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marc Klok commits to Persib for another 2 years.
Match6 May 2028
The goals have deserted Persib
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Persib can tell you which week it ends in.
Loan watch8 May 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Persib, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Marked 7.69. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Market8 May 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Persib, another week without a signature from Patricio Matricardi.
The dugout8 May 2028
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Apr 2028
The knee: Ahmad Arhan out for 22 days
22 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
36 days out for Danijel Lončar after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persib will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 Apr 2028
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.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Muhammad Natsir has agreed terms with Arema for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Persib
Uilliam Barros and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match8 Apr 2028
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Persib. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match8 Apr 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrew Jung. 1‑0 against Persita, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Nobody could get near Rizky Eka
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Persib
Uilliam Barros and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match11 Mar 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrew Jung. 2‑0 against PSBS Biak, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Ninety minutes of Andrew Jung at his very best
Marked 8.40. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Persib.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Berguinho was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
Loan watch13 Mar 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Persib, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Przybek 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 dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Hendro Hidayat, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Feb 2028
101 days out for Danijel Lončar after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persib will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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.
Match12 Feb 2028
4 matches without a win for Persib
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Persib are no longer polite ones.
Match12 Feb 2028
4 matches without a goal for Persib
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Siracusa have kept their man, and Persib go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persib this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch14 Feb 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Persib, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Marked 7.28. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
When it matters, Thom Haye 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.