Marked for Abdulqader Abdullah
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 May 2028
Milad Taremi breaks a bone — 111 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 May 2028
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.
Squad22 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 May 2028
“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.
Loan watch22 May 2028
The goals keep arriving from Omid Mohammadi’s exile
9 goals in 29 games at Saipa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gostaresh Foulad updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout22 May 2028
Farjad Fayaz 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.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Match22 May 2028
Position 4, 56 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout8 May 2028
Ahmad Nekounam has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gostaresh Foulad 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.
Market8 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Saman Nekounam’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad8 May 2028
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Gostaresh Foulad would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout8 May 2028
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 Shahin Taherkhani has written the date down.
The dugout8 May 2028
Saeid Nekounam asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad8 May 2028
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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.
Loan watch27 Mar 2028
29 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Farjad Fayaz 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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gostaresh Foulad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Match27 Mar 2028
Position 4 on 56 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Omid Cheshmi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gostaresh Foulad 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Gostaresh Foulad would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match11 Mar 2028
After 8 games, Gostaresh Foulad finally taste it again
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Tractor; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Saman Nekounam 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hossein Ebrahimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match11 Mar 2028
1‑2 to Tractor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ehsan Pouraliganji, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 Reza Vafaei left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 Ahmad Nekounam is on it.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gostaresh Foulad will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Mar 2028
Beaten 0‑3 by Tractor, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market6 Mar 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Majid Nekounam and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Siah Jamegan is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Hossein Vafaei 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Ahmad Rezaeian is the month’s best young player
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Siah Jamegan will try not to make too much of it.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
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 dugout6 Mar 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
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.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
Siah Jamegan 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.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Siah Jamegan is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Masoud Gholizadeh, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Kator Akile 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.
Match19 Feb 2028
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Saman Dejagah was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Siah Jamegan dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mehdi Hosseini commits to Siah Jamegan for another 4 years.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Hamid Reza Shamsipour 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Siah Jamegan can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Masoud Gholizadeh, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Something was said to Seyed Mohammad Hosseini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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.” Saman Dejagah chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Match27 Nov 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Esteghlal Ahvaz defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Sep 2027
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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siah Jamegan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match18 Sep 2027
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Masoud Moharrami is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“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.
Market20 Sep 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abdulqader Abdullah has his answer from Siah Jamegan; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
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The dugout
Ahmad Rezaeian has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
A defender's afternoon for Danial Eiri
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Sep 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market6 Sep 2027
The deal that would have taken Ahmad Rezaeian to Sepahan has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Siah Jamegan with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market6 Sep 2027
The offer from Foolad for Mehdi Hosseini was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siah Jamegan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 23 in, 8 out at Siah Jamegan
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 23 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Tractor keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad6 Sep 2027
At 21 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Hossein Vafaei 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 dugout6 Sep 2027
Parham Ghannad back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Siah Jamegan has worked with Parham Ghannad before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Aug 2027
The name of Ahmad Rezaeian has come up in conversations Siah Jamegan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
This is not rotation. Reza Dejagah has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Siah Jamegan is pretending otherwise.
Match28 Aug 2027
1‑3 to Foolad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match28 Aug 2027
Siah Jamegan are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad30 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
Parham Ghannad back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Siah Jamegan has worked with Parham Ghannad before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
Danial Eiri gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hamid Reza Shamsipour was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Saman Dejagah after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jul 2027
Business is business: Ramin Azmoun goes
Naft Tehran paid $44.0K and Siah Jamegan took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Parham Ghannad back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Siah Jamegan has worked with Parham Ghannad before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Market26 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Siah Jamegan have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Siah Jamegan can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad26 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Siah Jamegan are still strangers to each other
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Kator Akile 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdulqader Abdullah, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Jul 2027
The unthinkable, invoiced: Gregorio Greco sold
Persepolis arrived with $2.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The terraces19 Jul 2027
Gregorio Greco has gone, the accounts have $2.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Hossein Vafaei 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 dugout19 Jul 2027
Parham Ghannad back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Siah Jamegan has worked with Parham Ghannad before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reza Dejagah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Kator Akile gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Siah Jamegan will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Ahmad Rezaeian knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ahmad Rezaeian trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Everything was agreed with Sepahan and then the doctor spoke. Siah Jamegan have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Market28 Jun 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Siah Jamegan have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Morteza Moharrami is a better footballer than he was
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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Hossein Vafaei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
9 new faces, and Siah Jamegan are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Kator Akile 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 dugout28 Jun 2027
Parham Ghannad back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Siah Jamegan has worked with Parham Ghannad before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdulqader Abdullah, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jun 2027
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Siah Jamegan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregorio Greco 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Siah Jamegan 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Kator Akile in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Parham Ghannad back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Siah Jamegan has worked with Parham Ghannad before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
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.
Market21 Jun 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gregorio Greco signs something — a contract at Siah Jamegan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Apr 2027
Karim Torabi hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Karim Torabi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Karim Torabi 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milad Kor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Siah Jamegan are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
No hiding place for Milad Kor
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Milad Kor, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Siah Jamegan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market5 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Majid Nekounam’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Mar 2027
The season ends: position 13 for Siah Jamegan
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 24 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Siah Jamegan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match13 Mar 2027
4 matches without a win for Siah Jamegan
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Siah Jamegan are no longer polite ones.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
This is not rotation. Reza Dejagah has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Siah Jamegan is pretending otherwise.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulqader Abdullah is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match13 Mar 2027
4 matches without a goal for Siah Jamegan
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.
Match13 Mar 2027
Rah Ahan left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milad Kor 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Arya Delavari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 20 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Facundo Kruspzky 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑2 to Al Nasr, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 99% of the Al Wahda income
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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Rashid Mabkhout left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad5 Oct 2026
International break empties Al Wahda
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Gerónimo Rivera asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 16 in, 14 out at Al Wahda
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Al Wahda say no — this time
The offer from Emirates Club for Alaeddine Zouhir 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Graduation day at Al Wahda
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Al Wahda
Lucas Pimenta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market7 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Faisal Al Bloushi 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Amer Suqrat 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Al Wahda
6 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.