43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Foolad 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foolad 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 Foolad 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 words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Ali Nemati 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 Ramin Ebrahimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑1 to Padideh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ramin Nekounam to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ramin Rezaeian trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Foolad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Foolad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Foolad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Foolad, another week without a signature from Amir Masoud Sarabadani.
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Foolad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ramin Ebrahimi scored in the 87th minute, Saba had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Foolad took the lot.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Foolad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Foolad, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Foolad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Foolad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Esteghlal Khuzestan go through and Foolad go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Vahid Dejagah could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.48
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.48, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Naft Tehran moved on, Ehsan Mahroughi reports back to Foolad, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foolad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Foolad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Foolad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vahid Dejagah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ramin Rezaeian 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 Sep 2029
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramin Ebrahimi 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.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Foolad have done the hard part with AS Roma, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Foolad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Ahli, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ali Nemati 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 phone has started ringing about Ehsan Mahroughi again, and this time the name on the line is Naft Tehran. Foolad are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramin Rezaeian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Foolad asked and Al-Ittihad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
135 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Foolad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Foolad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Ittihad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Foolad 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 Foolad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padideh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deal with Foolad 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.
Padideh moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Sardar Mohammadi, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Match4 Aug 2029
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Padideh. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ashkan Pouraliganji and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
10 academy players handed senior numbers at Padideh
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 142 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.
Foolad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Ahli, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sardar Gholizadeh is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ali Nemati 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.
149 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Foolad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Foolad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Nassr keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Ali Nemati 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 left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Vouria Cheshmi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Foolad have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padideh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Add another name to the list: Hajduk Split have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ashkan Pouraliganji. The answer from Padideh has not changed — yet.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohammad Reza Yousefi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Padideh had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Fateh, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ashkan Pouraliganji 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.
Padideh offered $550.0K; Foolad 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammad Mehdi Ahmadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fateh have kept their man, and Padideh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Padideh have made the call to Slaven Belupo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Padideh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Masoud Cheshmi is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Padideh have gone to Foolad with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dynamo Kyiv have kept their man, and Padideh go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 offer from Esteghlal Khuzestan for Ehsan Mahroughi 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foolad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$36.0K was the most the club would pay and Zob Ahan were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramin Rezaeian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Foolad have made the call to Al-Qadisiyah. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Saad Al-Nasser is in the works
Foolad and Esteghlal Ahvaz have settled on $350.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The phone has started ringing about Ehsan Mahroughi again, and this time the name on the line is Esteghlal Khuzestan. Foolad are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and Foolad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sina Asadbeigi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ehsan Mahroughi 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foolad can pretend not to have heard.
$680.0K was the most the club would pay and Naft Tehran were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer went to Siah Jamegan 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.
Ali Nemati 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 fee is $140.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Saipa drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramin Rezaeian 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.
Ali Nemati was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Reza Soleimani 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 at Foolad 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Foolad. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yousef Mazrae signs something — a contract at Foolad or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 Foolad 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.
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 Mohammad Amin Moradi is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Foolad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ali Kolahkaj trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammad Reza Soleimani 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 Foolad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ehsan Mahroughi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Milad Sarlak signs something — a contract at Foolad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Foolad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abolfazl Razzaghpour and Foolad agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammad Reza Soleimani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
Saeed Amiri 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.
Nobody at Foolad 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammad Reza Soleimani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Milad Sarlak signs something — a contract at Foolad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Saeid Sadeghi’s negotiating for him
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ali Kolahkaj scored in the 88th minute, Esteghlal Khuzestan had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Foolad took the lot.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Foolad asked and Esteghlal Khuzestan 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.” Mohammad Reza Soleimani and Foolad agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Saeid Gholizadeh provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Naft Tehran; Padideh go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Padideh asked and Esteghlal Ahvaz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Saeid Gholizadeh. 2‑0 against Siah Jamegan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammad Taremi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Ali Nemati 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Foolad, and 1 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padideh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Position 3, 37 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Saeid Gholizadeh 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Padideh and Esteghlal Khuzestan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Marked 9.88 — 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.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padideh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padideh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dilshod Rahmatullayev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padideh the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 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 ratingsNinety minutes of Masoud Cheshmi at his very best
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padideh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padideh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ashkan Pouraliganji provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Saeid Gholizadeh 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ehsan Noorafkan 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 2‑0 win over Gostaresh Foulad, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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 Ashkan Pouraliganji is on it.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padideh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padideh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ashkan Pouraliganji 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.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padideh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padideh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sardar Mohammadi after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Mohammad Mehdi Ahmadi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padideh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padideh 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9.95. 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Padideh and Rah Ahan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
63 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padideh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ashkan Pouraliganji 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.
Padideh ran out of time with Esteghlal. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
A 1‑0 win over Esteghlal Ahvaz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padideh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padideh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Padideh until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
$1.3M on the table at Esteghlal. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$890.0K was the most the club would pay and Persepolis were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padideh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer went to Persepolis 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Esteghlal have kept their man, and Padideh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Padideh offered $620.0K; Malavan 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.
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padideh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 110 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padideh is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Padideh have gone to Malavan with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Foolad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foolad can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Podbrezova, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The chase for Pouria Meshalgerdi ended with $290.0K changing hands and Esteghlal out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Ali Nemati 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Ashkan Pouraliganji 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
8.41. 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.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foolad can pretend not to have heard.
$2.0M on the table at Persepolis. 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 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Qadisiyah keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Esteghlal 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.
Ali Nemati 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 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.
In brief
SquadRamin Rezaeian falls out with a teammate over standards
111 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Foolad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
$1.8M was the most the club would pay and Sepahan were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bolton Wanderers have kept their man, and Foolad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
119 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Foolad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foolad can pretend not to have heard.
Foolad have gone to Sepahan 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.
Foolad offered $1.6M; Persepolis 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foolad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foolad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramin Rezaeian 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. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and Foolad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 134 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Crewe Alexandra keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ali Nemati 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Morteza Ali Baledi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Foolad asked and Ascoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Foolad have made the call to Al-Qadisiyah. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
142 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Foolad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Foolad, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Padideh for Soheil Sarkari 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.
Ali Nemati and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramin Rezaeian 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. Portsmouth have kept their man, and Foolad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A loan enquiry to Crewe Alexandra: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Marin Bogdan is in the works
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Foolad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ali Nemati 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Reza Soleimani 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.
Ali Nemati and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Foolad 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 conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Amin Saedi has written the date down.
Mohammad Ali Kazemi has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Foolad the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Ali Nemati 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 Apr 2028
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramin Rezaeian 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.
“I watch every Foolad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zob Ahan runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Foolad. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Foolad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Foolad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foolad 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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Ali Nemati 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 Ramin Rezaeian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Foolad, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foolad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramin Rezaeian 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Foolad has been clear about where Mohammad Ali Kazemi stands, which is more than many ever get.
0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Foolad, and both men came out saying it was fine.