Marked for Alireza Taremi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Sep 2028
Every point is an argument now for Segesta
Position 8 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match2 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Segesta's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Segesta has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Segesta 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.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Everything agreed with Sesvete, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A move Alireza Taremi would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alireza Taremi is living that version at Segesta, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Segesta
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Éric Chardey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match2 Sep 2028
Cibalia left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A falling-out at Segesta
Amaro Sosa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Dec 2027
4 matches without a win for Rah Ahan
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Rah Ahan are no longer polite ones.
Squad13 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Rah Ahan
Ali Cheshmi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Rah Ahan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammad Beiranvand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Ali Cheshmi
7.44, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Rah Ahan had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Masoud Gholizadeh chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
Ali Rezaeian knocks on the manager's door
“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.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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 dugout13 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Jun 2027
Morteza Gholizadeh damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Match7 Jun 2027
Rah Ahan sink to position 15
29 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
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.
The terraces7 Jun 2027
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.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Rah Ahan say no — this time
The offer from Saipa for Morteza Gholizadeh 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Rah Ahan
Mohammad Beiranvand 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zob Ahan have kept their man, and Rah Ahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Rah Ahan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ehsan Nekounam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Rah Ahan
Mohammad Beiranvand 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ehsan Nekounam 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alireza Taremi, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Persepolis in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market16 Nov 2026
The Ali Rezaeian story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ali Rezaeian signs something — a contract at Rah Ahan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mehdi Moharrami trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.