A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Madura United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Madura United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Madura United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Jordy Wehrmann 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Madura United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jordy Wehrmann 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.
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Hendro Hardiyanto to a room that had heard them before.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Madura United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ricky Supriadi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 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.
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 1‑3 Hendro Hardiyanto left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ardi Idrus 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.
In brief
The dugoutMiswar Saputra asks for a word with the manager
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Twente is saying, and nobody at Madura United is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Madura United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universitario have kept their man, and Madura United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Madura United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Madura United have made the call to Twente. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ardi Idrus has his answer from Madura United; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dimitar Mitkov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Madura United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Dimitar Mitkov has agreed terms with Persib for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Jordy Wehrmann 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Madura United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Fachri Asnawi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Wahyu Pato has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pratama Riyadi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“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 Madura United, and it is not being withdrawn.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Madura United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Add another name to the list: PSBS Biak have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Make Aldo Maulidino. The answer from Madura United has not changed — yet.
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.