The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
7.39, 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.
Hilman Syah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Dušan Lagator 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.
A 2‑0 win over Persik, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Sávio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at PSM, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Andri Jaya on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1 for Sávio, marked 7.90, 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.
Dušan Lagator 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: Sheriddin Boboev. 2‑0 against PSBS Biak, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A mark of 7.94, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad15 Feb 2027
11 new faces, and PSM 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.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.75 for the rest of it.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dušan Lagator was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
PSM ran out of time with Bhayangkara Presisi. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andri Santoso 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.
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
PSM and Bhayangkara Presisi have settled on $250.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at PSM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at PSM 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. PSM have done the hard part with Dewa United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The shirt still fits. Hamza Ougnou is back at PSM, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $780.0K for Ezra Walian, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Lagator 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.
Persija arrived with $1.8M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
$140.0K. No player has ever cost PSM more, and expectation arrives with him.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Rasyid Bakri damages knee ligaments — 124 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
$780.0K settles it between the clubs for Ezra Walian
Persik have accepted the money. What PSM do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Daisuke Sakai has gone, the accounts have $1.8M 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.
Ambrizal Umanailo was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $140.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Persijap waiting with a shirt. Nobody at PSM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
PSM and Bali United have settled on $51.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Hilman Syah 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 Dušan Lagator was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at PSM will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Andritany Adhiyasa is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. PSM know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Persija arrived with $320.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. PSM have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Jacques Thémopelé has gone, the accounts have $320.0K 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.
Persija have accepted the money. What PSM do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PSM can pretend not to have heard.
PSM have gone to Persijap 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 PSM, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Semen Padang have kept their man, and PSM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dušan Lagator was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Gledson'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 words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Dušan Lagator 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.
Fahrul Aditia 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 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 Hilman Syah is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kodai Tanaka signs something — a contract at PSM or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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 Agung Mannan has written the date down.
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Dušan Lagator 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.
Rifky Dwi Septiawan 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Muhammad Arfan
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
Hilman Syah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Dušan Lagator 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.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PSM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PSM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Hilman Syah 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.
Nobody at PSM will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PSM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Hilman Syah 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.
In brief
SquadDušan Lagator falls out with a teammate over standards
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSM 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 Luka Čumić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. PSM know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at PSM, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Agung Mannan a promise
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Luka Čumić
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Rifky Dwi Septiawan 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Hilman Syah 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Dušan Lagator 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.
Nobody at PSM will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aloísio Soares signs something — a contract at PSM or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dušan Lagator was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Andri Jaya left the room before anybody could ask which.
2 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Dewa United next, and one man in the PSM dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. PSM know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and PSM will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 Agung Mannan has written the date down.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Dewa United
A brace, and Luka Čumić takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luka Čumić provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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; PSM 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 Dušan Lagator 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Andri Jaya after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
In brief
The dugoutGledson is still being punished for one mistake
Hilman Syah 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Luka Čumić 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.
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.
“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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Persija.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Persib? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
The deal that would have taken Fahrul Aditia to Persijap has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to PSM with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Hilman Syah 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.
Something was said to Jacques Thémopelé and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Persib next, and one man in the PSM dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Persijap will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PSM can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sávio scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Bali United moved on, Sávio reports back to PSM, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Čumić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rifky Dwi Septiawan 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.
7 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bali United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at PSM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 PSM 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 Eibar is saying, and nobody at PSM is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Čumić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
PSM asked and Chapecoense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Ilhamsyah enough to be asked twice.
PSM offered $33.0K; Madura United said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Marked 8.27 — 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Andri Jaya could afford to be generous.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PSM can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sávio scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The offer from Madura United for Sávio 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $11.4K — a club that wants Rangga Muslim enough to be asked twice.
$31.0K on the table at Madura United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Hilman Syah 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 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 Dony Tri Pamungkas enough to be asked twice.
$30.0K on the table at Persija. 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 offer went to Dewa United 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSM 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 Luka Čumić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.90, and 2 involvements.
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.
The offer went to Madura United 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.
Hilman Syah 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Agung Hidayat 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.
12 seasons and 167 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Čumić 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.
PSM asked and Náutico said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A 1‑0 win over Maluku Utara United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.