Zob Ahan asked and Siah Jamegan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Zob Ahan offered $2.1M; Sepahan said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Saeid Karimi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Zob Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shayan Mosleh 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.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Zob Ahan had all but put away. Tractor will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Zob Ahan have made the call to Spartak Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Saipa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zob Ahan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Zob Ahan asked and Tractor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$2.0M on the table at Sepahan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Zob Ahan offered $520.0K; Tractor said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Ehsan Pahlevan 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rahman Jafari. 2‑1 against Saipa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A brace, and Máximo Alonso takes the afternoon — 9.04
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Máximo Alonso provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Central Espanol can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Exequiel Mereles did not need any: 8.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” University of Pretoria had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
He is going to Zob Ahan, the club has $810.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mateo Urrutia has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Central Espanol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Zob Ahan have gone to Tractor with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer from Smouha for Hadi Baghban was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $810.0K has been paid because Jonathan Dellarossa is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The offer went to Tractor this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammad Javad Mohammadi and Zob Ahan agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zob Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Ali Ahmadi again, and this time the name on the line is Rah Ahan. Zob Ahan are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Exequiel Mereles provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The phone has started ringing about Jonathan Dellarossa again, and this time the name on the line is Zob Ahan. Central Espanol are listening politely and promising nothing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan Dellarossa and Central Espanol agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Exequiel Mereles 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.
Zob Ahan asked and Bournemouth 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 offer from Naft Tehran for Houman Elyasi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Zob Ahan have gone to Central Espanol with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Ehsan Pahlevan 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 name of Hadi Baghban has come up in conversations Zob Ahan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Zob Ahan
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saeid Karimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.