Kaveh 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saman 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.
“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 Rah Ahan, and 8 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 Ashkan Jahanbakhsh to a room that had heard them before.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Omid Hajsafi did not need any: 8.59, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Ahmad 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reza Mohammadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Majid Taremi, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 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.” Ashkan Jahanbakhsh, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Omid Hajsafi did not need any: 8.44, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Omid Hajsafi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A 2‑0 win over Esteghlal Khuzestan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir 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.
A performance of 8.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Rah Ahan 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ashkan Jahanbakhsh kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutMajid Taremi asks for a word with the manager
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Ehsan Torabi
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ehsan Torabi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.95
A mark of 7.95 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Rah Ahan will try again when the window opens; Siah Jamegan may not be selling by then.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir 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 Rah Ahan, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
$1.8M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
4‑0, and Omid Hajsafi took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Rah Ahan tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Omid Hajsafi takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Omid Hajsafi provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Rah Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is going to Saipa, the club has $1.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Rah Ahan have done the hard part with Esteghlal Khuzestan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The phone has started ringing about Reza Azmoun again, and this time the name on the line is Saipa. Rah Ahan are listening politely and promising nothing.