Marked for Farzad Rahimi
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout3 May 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.
Market3 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Omid Nourafkan’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout3 May 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad3 May 2027
Ehsan Hajsafi has started doing his badges
“I watch sessions differently now. I catch myself thinking about why we are doing the drill.” At 37 that is how nearly every man in a dugout started.
Squad3 May 2027
A programme of his own, away from the group, aimed at one thing the staff think is holding him back. Most improvement happens like this and none of it makes the paper.
Squad3 May 2027
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Mar 2027
Sepahan finish in position 7
46 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
At 37 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.11, and nobody on the pitch better.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Gostaresh Foulad to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sepahan and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Aref Aghasi left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Aref Aghasi will call it something else in private.
Match13 Mar 2027
It needed Ehsan Hajsafi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Saipa, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
No place in the plan for Aref Aghasi
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
When it matters, Ramin Azizi plays
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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A wage question at Sepahan
Hossein Hosseini 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Gostaresh Foulad close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Everything agreed with Sepahan, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match30 Jan 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Gostaresh Foulad have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Abolfazl Zamani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sepahan have kept their man, and Gostaresh Foulad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Ali Beiranvand
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir Hossein Neshatjoo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sepahan can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sepahan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match19 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Sepahan
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Dec 2026
The goals have deserted Sepahan
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sepahan can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout21 Dec 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ricardo Alves's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Siah Jamegan to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sepahan and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
The paperwork is done: Aref Aghasi joins from Esteghlal in a deal worth $3.2M. Now comes the harder part.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Sepahan 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Sepahan
Aref Aghasi 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
Saba are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Sepahan will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The Sepahan board find $6.9M for the manager
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $6.9M well is entirely his problem now.
Squad7 Sep 2026
No place for Aref Aghasi in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sepahan are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mohammad Reza Akhbari is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Sepahan
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sepahan, another week without a signature from Aria Yousefi.