49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Madura United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Madura United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruxi 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dimitar Mitkov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danilo Santacruz signs something — a contract at Madura United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Madura United. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Madura United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Madura United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruxi 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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Madura United could ask drops and the wages Dimitar Mitkov can ask rise.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Madura United. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
78 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Madura United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Three points for Madura United, 1‑0 the final word against Semen Padang in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Madura United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruxi 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.
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Arsan Makarin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.” Fachri Supriadi kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Madura United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
“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.
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.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Madura United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.94, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Fachri Supriadi on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Kerim Palić 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Danilo Santacruz. 2‑1 against Borneo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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
“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.” Fachri Supriadi kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Madura United 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jasey Wehrmann reports back to Madura United with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Madura United than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“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.
The offer from Arema for Jasey Wehrmann was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
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.
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.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Madura United deserved better, and so did he.
The offer from Maluku Utara United for Nur Diansyah was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Madura United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruxi 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.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Fachri Supriadi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Madura United dressing room was either.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Maluku Utara United in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jordy Wehrmann scored, was marked 7.70, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.