Marked for Egy Riyadi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Dec 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Hanif Sjahbandi
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSIM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Dec 2029
“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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Franco Ramos Mingo 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.
Boardroom24 Dec 2029
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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
A falling-out at PSIM
Deri Corfe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Dec 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Made Tito Wiratama and PSIM agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market24 Dec 2029
The name of Nermin Haljeta keeps appearing in other people's back pages. PSIM say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
Ferian Rizki 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 Ferian Rizki trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
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 Ghulam Fatkur Rachman is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Oct 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Hanif Sjahbandi
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSIM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom15 Oct 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at PSIM
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Bagas Putra breaks a bone — 25 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” PSIM may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Franco Ramos Mingo 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.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Tempers go at PSIM
Deri Corfe 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 dugout15 Oct 2029
Ji Da-bin gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
Wahyu Arhan 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 PSIM, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market15 Oct 2029
The name of Ezequiel Vidal keeps appearing in other people's back pages. PSIM say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
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.
Market3 Sep 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at PSIM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
Omer Zaguri: 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.” PSIM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market3 Sep 2029
“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 PSIM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Window shuts: 18 in, 15 out at PSIM
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Franco Ramos Mingo 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
A falling-out at PSIM
Deri Corfe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 Sep 2029
Hendro Pato is 18, and PSIM have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Nov 2028
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSIM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces20 Nov 2028
Supporters organise against the PSIM board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad20 Nov 2028
A falling-out at PSIM
Adrián Dalmau and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A row about effort at PSIM
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hwang Myung-Hyeon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
117% of the income goes out in wages at PSIM
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Adrián Dalmau 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 Adrián Dalmau is on it.
Squad20 Nov 2028
The formation has left Mufdi Iskandar behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. PSIM will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market20 Nov 2028
The name of Nermin Haljeta keeps appearing in other people's back pages. PSIM say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Nov 2028
Harlan Suardi damages knee ligaments — 66 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
Boardroom13 Nov 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at PSIM
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad13 Nov 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 PSIM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A move Mufdi Iskandar would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mufdi Iskandar is living that version at PSIM, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Franco Ramos Mingo 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 dugout13 Nov 2028
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.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Itay Kanarik, and the manager let it.
Market13 Nov 2028
The name of Adrián Dalmau keeps appearing in other people's back pages. PSIM say nothing, which says plenty.
Market13 Nov 2028
No fee and no drama: Mufdi Iskandar has signed at PSIM, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Harlan Suardi
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSIM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces23 Oct 2028
Anger at PSIM spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad23 Oct 2028
Tempers go at PSIM
Harlan Suardi 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at PSIM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Ramos Mingo 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.
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
Wages swallow 142% of the PSIM income
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 dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Harlan Suardi
“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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
38 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Adrián Dalmau 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 Adrián Dalmau is on it.