The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Persib had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Persib know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Marc Klok has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
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.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Persib, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Persib know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kayke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Persib are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
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.
Frans Putros 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Persib know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutJenluis Pérez asks for a word with the manager
Federico Barba 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 Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kayke 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 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 window away with the national side, and a shirt at Persib that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kayke 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 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.
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.
Thom Haye 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Persib know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“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.
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Persib has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persib have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Everybody at Persib saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Persib will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Persija next, and one man in the Persib dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The shirt still fits. Dedi Kusnandar is back at Persib, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“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; Persib are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrew Jung. 1‑0 against Persebaya, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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. Persib will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persib have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Persib know it.
Federico Barba 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.
Marked 7.07 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Firman Septian after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persib lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Federico Barba 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrew Jung. 2‑0 against PSIM, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
10 goals and a season average of 7.20. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout21 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.” Firman Septian kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persib lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persib will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Persib asked and Juventude 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 a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Semen Padang tried to reorganise, Persib did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danijel Lončar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Teja Paku Alam's mistake
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutRamon Tanque dropped after a run of poor form
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persib lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Persib 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Santa Cruz is saying, and nobody at Persib is enjoying the guessing.
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 deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Persib will try again when the window opens; Bali United may not be selling by then.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Thom Haye is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $378.2K — a club that wants Irfan Jaya enough to be asked twice.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Titanes Guanare is saying, and nobody at Persib is enjoying the guessing.
Persib have gone to Bali United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Minute 87, against Arema, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persib lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Persijap go through and Persib go home, 1‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Persib are taken apart by Persijap — 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danijel Lončar 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.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persib lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Persib have done the hard part with Vasco da Gama, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thom Haye. 3‑2 against Persita, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Persib asked and Zwolle said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Alfeandra Dewangga again, and this time the name on the line is PSIM. Persib are listening politely and promising nothing.
Eliano Reijnders 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Persib can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Madura United will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dimitar Mitkov has pre-agreed a move to Persib, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Central have kept their man, and Persib go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marinus Sucipto 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ricky Hardiyanto 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Firman Wibowo 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.
“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; Persib are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Persib now know that too.
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.