Marked for Ehsan Hosseini
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Reza Beiranvand
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saba lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Saba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Ehsan Hosseini has left for Saipa in a $52.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Karim Vafaei
“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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Esteghlal Ahvaz left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market24 Aug 2026
The shop window has Reza Vafaei in it
Saba have let the market know Reza Vafaei can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Saipa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ali Dehghan 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 Saipa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.77, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match22 Aug 2026
Honours even between Saipa and Padideh
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Reza Beiranvand
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saba lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Karim Vafaei delivers — 7.14
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Karim Vafaei scored, was marked 7.14, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Saba
Alireza Moharrami 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Ehsan Hosseini has come up in conversations Saba were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Reza Beiranvand, and the manager let it.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Aug 2026
It needed Karim Vafaei to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Tractor, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 47. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Reza Beiranvand damages knee ligaments — 52 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.30 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Saba
Alireza Moharrami 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Karim Vafaei 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Milad Cheshmi, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market10 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ehsan Hosseini has his answer from Saba; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match8 Aug 2026
Saba and Saipa take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.