Persita will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Arema were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings18 Aug 2036
A brace, and Marco Reis takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marco Reis provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marlon Silva Neves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arema can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arema can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marlon Silva Neves 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $22.2M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pam Samuel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.63. 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 dugout11 Aug 2036
The manager has not finished forgetting Jesse Kennedy's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Arema scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
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.
“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; Arema are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arema is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The terraces28 Jul 2036
Arema are taken apart by Bali United — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Arema have done the hard part with Persija, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arema this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Mauro Smit 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.
“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 Arema, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marlon Silva Neves 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.
He is 22 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
0‑3 to Persija, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marlon Silva Neves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arema this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Adi Satryo knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PSM is saying, and nobody at Arema is enjoying the guessing.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arema can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Alon Ben-Ami 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 gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arema they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
Player ratings30 Jun 2036
Up for the corner, and João Almeida delivers — 7.83
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. João Almeida scored, was marked 7.83, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bali United keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Arema know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arema this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Persis spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Arema, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marlon Silva Neves 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Arema know it.
He is 23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Claassen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Arema can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arema is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arema can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arema this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsWanderson ran the middle of the pitch — 7.13
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arema this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Smit 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 2 on the scoresheet, 8.61 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arema have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match17 May 2036
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Arema. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arema this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Samat Kuat has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
Player ratingsAimar Cano was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Alon Ben-Ami at his very best
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arema is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Arema is running low.
Player ratings5 May 2036
Up for the corner, and Alon Ben-Ami delivers — 7.85
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alon Ben-Ami scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mauro Smit scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Arema know it.
Marlon Silva Neves 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 gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Arema know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arema this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pam Samuel 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Persib scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Arema told Jesse Kennedy something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Alon Ben-Ami 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Arema know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marlon Silva Neves 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.
At 23 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 Apr 2036
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Arema. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $22.5M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.91 on the card, and the Arema support went home talking about one name.
The dugout21 Apr 2036
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.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutJesse Kennedy knocks on the manager’s door
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.
Marlon Silva Neves 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Arema know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pam Samuel 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arema they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Witan Hidayat did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Alon Ben-Ami has agreed terms with PSBS Biak for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Arema know it.
Marlon Silva Neves 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Witan Hidayat has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arema have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arema this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marlon Silva Neves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Marlon Silva Neves 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arema can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
At 23 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad17 Mar 2036
Pam Samuel 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arema can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marlon Silva Neves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A mark of 7.33, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout3 Mar 2036
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arema this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arema can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Witan Hidayat. 2‑1 against Semen Padang, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pam Samuel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
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.
“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; Arema are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Smit 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arema this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 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.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Persis kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Arema will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Wanderson 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Marlon Silva Neves has, at Arema, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
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.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Mauro Smit 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arema can pretend not to have heard.
Wanderson 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.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Arema now know that too.
“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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arema this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Arema will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
5 new faces, and Arema are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arema, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Aviv Salem’s negotiating for him
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Wanderson 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Arema 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andi Maulana trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.