Marked for Thierry Bedime
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Hassan Adamu 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Prince Maseko gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Prince Maseko has just signed for Fauve Azur Elite, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Hassan Adamu 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 Fauve Azur Elite this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market11 Jun 2029
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Fauve Azur Elite will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad11 Jun 2029
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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Frederic Koloto has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Fauve Azur Elite 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Jan 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Siah Jamegan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Ramin Noorafkan 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hossein Hajsafi 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
1‑2 to Saba, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amir Hosseini, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Jan 2029
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.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Marked 5.18. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Marked 5.48, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Luis Cuesta could not find anything
5.65. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces18 Dec 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market18 Dec 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Siah Jamegan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Ramin Noorafkan 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.
Match16 Dec 2028
1‑3 to Sepahan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hossein Hajsafi 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Vouria Ghoddos
“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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Thierry Bedime for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Siah Jamegan will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Siah Jamegan, and it is a cruel one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Nov 2028
A one-man rearguard from Niko Kazija
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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
“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.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
A brace, and Alireza Dejagah takes the afternoon — 7.87
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alireza Dejagah provided it, and the 7.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market13 Nov 2028
“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 Siah Jamegan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Nov 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 Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Hosseini 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 terraces13 Nov 2028
The crowd has taken to Niko Kazija
At 21 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
It finished 2‑0, and it was Alireza Dejagah’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Siah Jamegan.
Market13 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ramin Noorafkan’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Siah Jamegan's wait for a win
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siah Jamegan has to find a result from somewhere.
Market2 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Luis Cuesta in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Squad2 Oct 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 Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vouria Vafaei 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.
Squad2 Oct 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.
Match30 Sep 2028
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Alireza Azmoun had Siah Jamegan level again within 4 minutes, and Padideh never got to play with a lead at all.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Marked 7.95. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match30 Sep 2028
It needed Alireza Azmoun to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Padideh, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Vouria Vafaei out for 61 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siah Jamegan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hossein Hajsafi and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Jul 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 Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jun 2028
A fracture rules Vouria Vafaei out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siah Jamegan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Alireza Cheshmi: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Market12 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Faisal Al-Shamrani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Siah Jamegan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Ramin Noorafkan 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Ahmad Ghoddos gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ahmad Ghoddos has just signed for Siah Jamegan, and for once the answer mattered.
Market12 Jun 2028
The phone has started ringing about Mohammad Amini again, and this time the name on the line is Padideh. Siah Jamegan are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Apr 2028
Ashkan Karimi damages knee ligaments — 39 days out
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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market3 Apr 2028
“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 Siah Jamegan, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Mar 2028
Ashkan Karimi damages knee ligaments — 62 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Alireza Cheshmi out for 50 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siah Jamegan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad13 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 Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.