Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cyrus Margono will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persija the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Persija can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daisuke Sakai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Persija know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ahmad Nur Hardianto has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cyrus Margono trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Jordi Amat and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Persija training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shayne Pattynama 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.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Persija know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mauro Zijlstra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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 Alexander Jeremejeff is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Persija know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ahmad Nur Hardianto has written the date down.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and PSIM waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Persija is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Persija, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 12 gone
That is the business done at Persija 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.
Dewa United wanted more than $32.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Persija training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shayne Pattynama 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.
Mauro Zijlstra 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 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Jean Mota has come out of that comparison in the side, and Persija have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting José Enrique's mistake
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Persija can pretend not to have heard.
$200.0K was the most the club would pay and PSIM were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Ilham Rio Fahmi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shayne Pattynama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Arema; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persija lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 3, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Jordi Amat 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Persija training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Jeremejeff 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexander Jeremejeff. 1‑0 against Bali United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 dugout3 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Septian Wibowo kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Bhayangkara Presisi kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Persija will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cyrus Margono will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persija the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persija 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 Alexander Jeremejeff was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stjepan Lončar and Persija agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Persija training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Jeremejeff 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bruno Tubarão signs something — a contract at Persija or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persija this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Persija training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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.
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 Gustavo Almeida is on it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Persija training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Jeremejeff 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stjepan Lončar signs something — a contract at Persija or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Persija know it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nadeo Argawinata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sousa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Awan Setho: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Sani Rizki has gone, the accounts have $390.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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 Bhayangkara Presisi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Feyenoord, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Milan Ristovski 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Bhayangkara Presisi will quote 19 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Persija paid $390.0K and Bhayangkara Presisi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7.54, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Persija and Dewa United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Persija asked and Ituano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Jordi Amat 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Teuku Ichsan obliged against Borneo. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Bhayangkara Presisi.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Allano wants continental football; whether Bhayangkara Presisi can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Allano 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.
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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $435.1K — a club that wants Sani Rizki enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ituano keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$390.0K on the table at Bhayangkara Presisi. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lusitânia Lourosa have kept their man, and Persija go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Jordi Amat 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.
At 21 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.
“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 Bhayangkara Presisi, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $34.1K — a club that wants Asyraq Gufron enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bhayangkara Presisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Semen Padang this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$37.0K was the most the club would pay and Madura United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Vera 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persijap have kept their man, and Bhayangkara Presisi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.