Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remco Balk 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.
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.
Remco Balk 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 Berguinho 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 Persib this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bagus Arhan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Adam Alis 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Persib 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Remco Balk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Patricio Matricardi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Persib have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Irkham Mila is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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 Adam Alis has written the date down.
3 goals in 7 games at Maluku Utara United — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Persib updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Remco Balk 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 Berguinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout28 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.” Agung Wibowo kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Thom Haye 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 performance of 8.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Alis 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Persija in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutBeckham Putra knocks on the manager’s door
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Basel keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remco Balk 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ahmad Darmawan 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.
5 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Persib will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Vasco da Gama keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Persib and PSIM, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
PSIM made Persib work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Berguinho 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sporting CP keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Remco Balk 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. Persik have kept their man, and Persib go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Alis 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 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Zulkifli Lukmansyah scored, was marked 7.48, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Persib had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Feyenoord, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Teja Paku Alam 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remco Balk 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.
Persib asked and Flamengo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persib this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Berguinho 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.
Persib have made the call to Feyenoord. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout17 Aug 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.” Agung Wibowo kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bhayangkara Presisi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Persib is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Remco Balk 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Firman Hardiyanto is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Aditya Sulaeman has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bambang Asnawi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adam Alis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Thom Haye decided otherwise. Persis had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persib this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑2 win over Persis, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remco Balk 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Dimitar Mitkov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Persib have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Persib asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.