The Arema Sentinel
Squad7 Feb 2028
The knee: Dedik Setiawan out for 30 days
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arema lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
A brace, and Gustavo França takes the afternoon — 8.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gustavo França provided it, and the 8.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Arema until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Feb 2028
The Semen Padang deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Andrian Casvari reports back to Arema with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Arema
Luiz Gustavo 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A move Yishay Brosh 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. Yishay Brosh is living that version at Arema, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Graduation day at Arema
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Match5 Feb 2028
Arema see off Bali United
Three points for Arema, 2‑1 the final word against Bali United in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market7 Feb 2028
One of our own: Hanif Kurniawan joins the Arema first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hanif Kurniawan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
- Market Rachmat Sulaeman steps up from the Arema academy
- Market One of our own: Witan Supriadi joins the Arema first team
- The dugout No hiding place for Matheus Blade