0‑3 to Dewa United, 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 The request is on a desk at Persis, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitri 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 Persis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persis 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 Dimitri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Pratama Pratama to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Persis can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Persis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitri 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.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
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.” Pratama Pratama, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Santiago Montoya is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dimitri signs something — a contract at Persis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Persis can pretend not to have heard.
Sho Yamamoto 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Persis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitri 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 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 Persis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Persis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitri 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.
Luka Dumančić 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pratama Pratama after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Febri Hariyadi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Persis needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Out, 1‑4 to Persebaya, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The terraces22 May 2028
Persis are taken apart by Persebaya — and the town wants answers
It finished 1-4. 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oktafianus Fernando will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persis the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
4 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Persis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitri 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.
Luka Dumančić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Cleylton'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 accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pratama Pratama was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Persis dressing room was either.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1 for Miroslav Maričić, marked 7.71, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Persis and Persijap in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luka Dumančić 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Sho Yamamoto 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 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.
6 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alexvan Djin has his answer from Persis; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Pratama Pratama after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hernán Taborda provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Borneo made Persis work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Persis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitri 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.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
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.” Pratama Pratama kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Sho Yamamoto 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pratama Pratama was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Persis dressing room was either.
13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Irfan Jauhari had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Persis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitri 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.