Marked for Mohammad Gandomi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.82, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Hossein Kanaani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Siah Jamegan to sit and watch. I want to come back to Persepolis and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.36 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Persepolis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Gera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A quiet fortnight at Persepolis
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The dugout9 Nov 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Saman Beiranvand, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Reza Shojaei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ashkan Khodadad was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Reza Shojaei
“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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Tractor left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“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 Siah Jamegan, and 7 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mohammad Khodadad after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Hossein Kanaani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I watch every Persepolis game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Siah Jamegan runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Persepolis 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Danial Eiri 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Naft Tehran in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Igor Sergeev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Persepolis say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Mohammad Amin Kazemian has written the date down.
Squad12 Oct 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Persepolis the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Reza Shojaei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ali Moharrami is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hossein Beiranvand is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout12 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Saeid Hajsafi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Majid Cheshmi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Reza Shojaei 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
Reza Shojaei 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
55 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Sep 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 0‑1 Mohammad Khodadad left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market28 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Majid Cheshmi may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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
Siah Jamegan close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 4 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Padideh moved on, Majid Nekounam reports back to Siah Jamegan, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Reza Shojaei 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ashkan Khodadad 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The phone has started ringing about Reza Ghoddos again, and this time the name on the line is Rah Ahan. Siah Jamegan are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Foolad have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
Reza Shojaei 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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Siah Jamegan
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ashkan Khodadad was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ali Rezaeian 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Karim Jahanbakhsh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ehsan Dejagah 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mohammad Taremi 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.
The dugout3 Aug 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Persepolis left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.