41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rah Ahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rah Ahan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Saeid Pouraliganji 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 name of Artin Rostami has come up in conversations Rah Ahan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Foolad have kept their man, and Rah Ahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rah Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rah Ahan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Saeid Pouraliganji 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 phone has started ringing about Alireza Hosseini again, and this time the name on the line is Naft Tehran. Rah Ahan are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulmalik Al-Marwani 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 new man at Rah Ahan has worked with Alireza Karami before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutAli Ahmadi is still being punished for one mistake
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rah Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Esteghlal have accepted the money. What Rah Ahan do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Saeid Pouraliganji 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.
Rah Ahan asked and Sepahan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Rah Ahan is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The new man at Rah Ahan has worked with Alireza Karami before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Rah Ahan can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Shohruh Eshbo'tayev and Rah Ahan agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mehdi Azmoun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Artin Rostami is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Rah Ahan will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Matej Šop 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.
Saeid Pouraliganji 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Azmoun 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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
7 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
The dugoutVahid Dejagah asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThe manager's exit leaves Ehsan Khodadad exposed
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rah Ahan can pretend not to have heard.
Saeid Pouraliganji and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Ali Karimi 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rah Ahan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Rah Ahan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shohruh Eshbo'tayev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persepolis have kept their man, and Rah Ahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“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 1 appearances in 28 say he has earned the hearing.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rah Ahan has been clear about where Mehdi Azmoun stands, which is more than many ever get.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ramin Rezaeian has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shohruh Eshbo'tayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Rah Ahan 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.
“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; Rah Ahan are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $57.6K of what Rah Ahan paid for Majid Jahanbakhsh is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Reza Ebrahimi has gone, the accounts have $270.0K 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rah Ahan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 26 gone
That is the business done at Rah Ahan 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Rah Ahan have done the hard part with Gostaresh Foulad, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The shirt still fits. Ramin Shojaei is back at Rah Ahan, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Saipa paid $270.0K and Rah Ahan took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Padideh have kept their man, and Rah Ahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Karim Dejagah 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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Rah Ahan will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Ali Karimi 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Siah Jamegan have done the hard part with Rah Ahan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Siah Jamegan offered $390.0K; Zob Ahan said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The terraces18 Jun 2029
Siah Jamegan spend $520.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $520.0K for Milad Mohammadi, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Ali Dejagah 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.
Siah Jamegan asked and Malavan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
5 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Shahin Shojaei
The mood at Rah Ahan has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Saeid Pouraliganji 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.
Squad21 May 2029
Mehdi Azmoun 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.
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 Vahid Dejagah has written the date down.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rah Ahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 15 on 17 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Saeid Pouraliganji 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.
“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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Mehdi Azmoun 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rah Ahan can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ehsan Khodadad will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rah Ahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Rah Ahan asked and Torino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Ali Karimi 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.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rah Ahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
7.18, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Rah Ahan asked and Saipa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Ali Karimi 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.
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Dejagah 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Siah Jamegan asked and Rah Ahan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Milad Rezaeian, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
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 Ramin Taremi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad12 Feb 2029
5 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.
The mood at Rah Ahan has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 102 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.
“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.
Saeid Pouraliganji 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.
Rah Ahan asked and Malavan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Nemati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rah Ahan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Esteghlal Khuzestan have kept their man, and Rah Ahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Nemati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Rah Ahan can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Naft Tehran have kept their man, and Rah Ahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amir Noorafkan. 1‑0 against Saba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Nemati 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.
In brief
Player ratingsAmir Noorafkan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Transfer targetsA loan move for Majid Aliyari is in the works
12 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Morteza Pouraliganji has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The offer from Tractor for Arwin Javad 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.
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.
Saba and Rah Ahan have settled on $140.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Esteghlal Khuzestan have kept their man, and Saba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.