Marked for Miswar Saputra
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Madura United's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Madura United has to find a result from somewhere.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Madura United can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persib have kept their man, and Madura United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Borneo left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Jajá runs at them all day
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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruxi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Ahmad Abimanyu left the room before anybody could ask which.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Taufik Hidayat’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Madura United needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Madura United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Madura United close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
No thanks: Luis Montilla rejects the move
Madura United had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Andorra, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Dimitar Mitkov has agreed terms with Persija for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSBS Biak have kept their man, and Madura United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Kerim Palić 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 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Madura United 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taufik Hidayat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
6 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Nur Diansyah 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 Madura United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Madura United asked and PSIM said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.46 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dimitar Mitkov, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ahmad Abimanyu after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Andorra have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
Bhayangkara Presisi go through and Madura United go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Madura United's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Madura United has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Pedro Monteiro 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Madura United asked and Bali United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ruxi 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kerim Palić, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
7.90, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Madura United had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.