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.
0‑6 against Bali United, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Semen Padang can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Semen Padang have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Semen Padang they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
5 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.
Supporters organise against the Semen Padang board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Semen Padang is running low.
0‑3 to Borneo, 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Semen Padang have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Madura United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Semen Padang is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Persija will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dimas Putra has pre-agreed a move to Semen Padang, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Semen Padang asked and Persijap said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borneo have kept their man, and Semen Padang go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Boardroom14 Jul 2031
95% of the income goes out in wages at Semen Padang
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 dugout14 Jul 2031
Kianz Froese is still being punished for one mistake
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.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Semen Padang have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Semen Padang they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Shoya Endo did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with PSM is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Semen Padang is running low.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and PSIM spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jaime Giraldo 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
Player ratingsWahyu Agong was on a different afternoon to everybody else
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Semen Padang people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jaime Giraldo 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kurniawan Arhan 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 Arsan Makarin's mistake
BoardroomNobody arrives at Semen Padang until somebody leaves
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Syahrul Trisna has agreed terms with PSM for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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.
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Semen Padang they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Semen Padang have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persija have kept their man, and Semen Padang go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Boardroom94% of the income goes out in wages at Semen Padang
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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 directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The terraces2 Jun 2031
The mood at Semen Padang has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Semen Padang can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
11 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and PSBS Biak were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Jaime Giraldo 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 9.53 — 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 words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
11 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Half the programme played, position 16, 8 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Madura United scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
78 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Semen Padang lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑4 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.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑5 to Persija, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arsan Makarin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Semen Padang can tell you which week it ends in.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 16 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. 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Semen Padang is running low.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Semen Padang and PSM, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Boardroom5 May 2031
Nobody left the Semen Padang dressing room in a hurry
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.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7 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.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shoya Endo 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.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang 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 Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Semen Padang and Persijap, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Jaime Giraldo 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 words a physio says slowly. 127 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jaime Giraldo 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.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
134 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Semen Padang lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2‑5 against Bhayangkara Presisi, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Semen Padang and Bhayangkara Presisi in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
3 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.
141 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shoya Endo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 148 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.
Semen Padang interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
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.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
155 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Semen Padang lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Jaime Giraldo 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Bagas Jaya 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 Hidayat 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marinus Santoso is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 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 Semen Padang 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 Kazaki Nakagawa 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 dugout24 Feb 2031
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Semen Padang will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kazaki Nakagawa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Beaten 4 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
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.
PSBS Biak will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Semen Padang were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Semen Padang will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.84 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Semen Padang 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 Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shoya Endo 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 manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Semen Padang has been clear about where Maya Maeda stands, which is more than many ever get.
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Semen Padang could ask drops and the wages Syahrul Trisna can ask rise.
Semen Padang have made Firman Ramadhan available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
In brief
The dugoutHanif Arhan knocks on the manager’s door
SquadThe training reports on Komang Dedi are not good
234Edition
The Semen Padang Herald
20 Jan 2031
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces20 Jan 2031
The mood at Semen Padang has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Semen Padang 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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Shoya Endo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Semen Padang 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Semen Padang can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Semen Padang will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samuel Simanjuntak and Semen Padang agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Syahrul Trisna’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Achmad Maulana has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 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 Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
Supporters organise against the Semen Padang board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gil Revivo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Semen Padang is running low.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Semen Padang will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jaime Giraldo 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
SquadKianz Froese falls out with a teammate over standards
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Semen Padang will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Kianz Froese 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. Semen Padang know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hanif Arhan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Semen Padang can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang 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 Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kurniawan Arhan and Semen Padang agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Jaime Giraldo is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
In brief
BoardroomNobody arrives at Semen Padang until somebody leaves
Supporters organise against the Semen Padang board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kianz Froese was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Semen Padang could ask drops and the wages Muhamad Riyandi can ask rise.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Kianz Froese was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Egy Sucipto is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Aditya Abimanyu is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bambang Sucipto 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. Kurniawan Arhan 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Semen Padang, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutEgy Septian has become a man the manager trusts
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Semen Padang know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Gil Revivo is on it.
52 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Kianz Froese 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.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Muhamad Riyandi was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
Nobody arrives at Semen Padang until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Semen Padang this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The mood at Semen Padang has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Jaime Giraldo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kianz Froese 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 easiest signature of my career.” Ahmad Darmawan and Semen Padang agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Semen Padang is running low.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Achmad Maulana 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 Semen Padang 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 Kianz Froese was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Semen Padang 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.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Semen Padang would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Kianz Froese 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.
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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Jaime Giraldo's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Boardroom7 Oct 2030
Nobody arrives at Semen Padang until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Semen Padang this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The mood at Semen Padang has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jaime Giraldo 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Komang Dedi, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Rangga Muslim 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Syahrul Trisna trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Semen Padang has been clear about where Mido Hossem stands, which is more than many ever get.
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Madura United. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kianz Froese 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 8.16 — 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kianz Froese 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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Semen Padang has been clear about where Komang Dedi stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Semen Padang dressing room in a hurry
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
SquadSemen Padang are still strangers to each other
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 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.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Semen Padang has been clear about where Kazaki Nakagawa stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Semen Padang is running low.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kianz Froese was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Semen Padang asked and PSM said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Player ratingsBoth jobs done by Wahyu Agong — 6.71
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Arsan Makarin
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Semen Padang 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 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Syahrul Trisna.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jaime Giraldo 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 are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
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 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
The mood at Semen Padang has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Semen Padang will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Semen Padang is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Semen Padang will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Semen Padang is running low.
8 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Semen Padang asked and PSM said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Semen Padang 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 Semen Padang, 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 Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Semen Padang and Bhayangkara Presisi in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadWords at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Semen Padang will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
6 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.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Semen Padang asked and Persijap 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Semen Padang is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kazaki Nakagawa and Semen Padang agree another 2 years.
Jaime Giraldo 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 upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Semen Padang is running low.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kianz Froese was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Uchechi Okoye has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Semen Padang have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adi Eko Jayanto and Semen Padang agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about 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 Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.25 at 34, 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 Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Firman Ramadhan has just signed for Semen Padang, and for once the answer mattered.
Semen Padang asked and Persib 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 easiest signature of my career.” Firman Ramadhan and Semen Padang agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Made Tito Wiratama scored, was marked 7.40, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Syahrul Trisna and Semen Padang agree another 1 years.
Kazaki Nakagawa 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Semen Padang and Persita, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Egy Saddil is living that version at Semen Padang, and it tends to show in the first month.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Kurniawan Nugroho has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Semen Padang have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Semen Padang asked and Borneo 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Semen Padang lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wahyu Agong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Persik had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Semen Padang is running low.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Fachri Sucipto did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Madura United will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Semen Padang were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Semen Padang have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Semen Padang they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Wahyu Agong 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.
Player ratings27 May 2030
Wahyu Agong was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.38. 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Fachri Sucipto has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
SquadWords at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Squad20 May 2030
Wahyu Agong 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 has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Dewa United defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Wahyu Agong
The mood at Semen Padang has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
11 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Semen Padang is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Kianz Froese was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
7 goals in one match, Kianz Froese on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Semen Padang and PSM.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kianz Froese was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Semen Padang they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang 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 Samuel Gwijangge was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
Looking aheadThe leaders are next for Semen Padang
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Syahrul Trisna, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Arel Shriki 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.
The mood at Semen Padang has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wahyu Agong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
7 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Syahrul Trisna and Semen Padang agree another 1 years.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Wahyu Agong 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.49, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.79, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Gwijangge was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
5 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Semen Padang is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
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 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Arel Shriki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Supporters organise against the Semen Padang board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wahyu Agong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
At 19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arel Shriki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Semen Padang they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Wahyu Agong. 3‑1 against PSIM, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Arel Shriki 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jayus Hariyono is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Hanif Arhan is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Jaime Giraldo 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mido Hossem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
PSIM next, and one man in the Semen Padang dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The mood at Semen Padang has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
A brace, and Kianz Froese takes the afternoon — 8.82
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kianz Froese provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Semen Padang is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arel Shriki 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.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Syahrul Trisna and Semen Padang agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Semen Padang asked and Bali United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arel Shriki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Still no offer on the table, and Syahrul Trisna’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Semen Padang dressing room was either.
Squad11 Feb 2030
The division's best last weekend was a Semen Padang man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Wahyu Agong was the best thing in any of them.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Kianz Froese could not do
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Farel Putra Wardani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marked 9.66 — 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Semen Padang asked and Dewa United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Semen Padang go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Aditya Santoso 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kurniawan Pato is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Evan Beckham is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rachmat Septian is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Arel Shriki 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Semen Padang lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Semen Padang they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Arel Shriki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Everything was agreed with Arema and then the doctor spoke. Semen Padang have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mido Hossem has, at Semen Padang, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Kianz Froese 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.
Persebaya will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Fachri Wardana has pre-agreed a move to Semen Padang, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Semen Padang asked and PSM 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Semen Padang can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Farel Putra Wardani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Add another name to the list: PSBS Biak have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Samuel Gwijangge. The answer from Semen Padang has not changed — yet.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kianz Froese 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persebaya have kept their man, and Semen Padang go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Achmad Maulana and Semen Padang agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
In brief
The dugoutKianz Froese loses the manager who believed in him
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Semen Padang is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kazaki Nakagawa 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Daffa Salman has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Semen Padang have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Arel Shriki 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The mood at Semen Padang has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wahyu Agong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Dec 2029
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arel Shriki 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 Wahyu Agong trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Arel Shriki 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Farel Putra Wardani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arel Shriki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom10 Dec 2029
Nobody arrives at Semen Padang until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Semen Padang this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kazaki Nakagawa signs something — a contract at Semen Padang or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Semen Padang says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Semen Padang, another week without a signature from Marinus Firmansyah.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rhaka Syafaka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Semen Padang is running low.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Semen Padang they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kazaki Nakagawa and Semen Padang agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kianz Froese 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.
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.
Kianz Froese has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Position 17 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wahyu Agong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Semen Padang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Kianz Froese was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Semen Padang, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Gil Revivo are not good
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The medical room confirms 29 days on the sidelines for Made Tito Wiratama, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arel Shriki 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Semen Padang, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Farel Putra Wardani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kazaki Nakagawa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arel Shriki 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.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kazaki Nakagawa signs something — a contract at Semen Padang or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
BoardroomThe Semen Padang production line keeps running
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Semen Padang can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dia Syayid will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Arel Shriki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Kianz Froese is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
In brief
The dugoutWahyu Agong knocks on the manager’s door
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Position 17 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wahyu Agong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Arel Shriki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Semen Padang, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Kurniawan Supriadi leaves Semen Padang the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arel Shriki 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Farel Putra Wardani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jaime Giraldo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Arel Shriki 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.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kazaki Nakagawa signs something — a contract at Semen Padang or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Semen Padang they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jaime Giraldo 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 Arel Shriki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Fachri Sucipto is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Semen Padang has been clear about where Dia Syayid stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Semen Padang is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Kianz Froese 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Semen Padang has been clear about where Arsan Makarin stands, which is more than many ever get.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Kianz Froese decided otherwise. Madura United had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 14 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Wahyu Agong 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.
A 3‑2 win over Madura United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Kianz Froese 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.
At 17 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.
In brief
Player ratingsWahyu Agong was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Farel Putra Wardani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arel Shriki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dia Syayid will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Semen Padang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jaime Giraldo 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.
9 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Semen Padang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kazaki Nakagawa 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.