Marked for Ehsan Shojaei
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Jun 2031
Vahid Gholizadeh damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Market30 Jun 2031
“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.
Market30 Jun 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kaveh Gholizadeh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Esteghlal Khuzestan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
The offer went to Esteghlal this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Esteghlal Khuzestan asked and Esteghlal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Mehdi Sorkhi 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
39 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad30 Jun 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Esteghlal Khuzestan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Jun 2031
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Esteghlal Khuzestan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market2 Jun 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Esteghlal Khuzestan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Jun 2031
The medical room confirms 38 days on the sidelines for Hossein Kanaani, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market2 Jun 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Esteghlal Khuzestan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kaveh Gholizadeh has agreed terms with Saipa for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Mohammad Sharifi 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.
Transfer targets2 Jun 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Esteghlal have kept their man, and Esteghlal Khuzestan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Jun 2031
The medical room confirms 67 days on the sidelines for Ehsan Shojaei, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market2 Jun 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Esteghlal Khuzestan, another week without a signature from Sina Khadempour.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Apr 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Esteghlal Khuzestan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Yaad Gonen 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.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Feb 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Esteghlal Khuzestan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shoxmalik Komilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Feb 2031
Esteghlal Khuzestan asked and Esteghlal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Ninety minutes of Hojjat Ahmadi at his very best
Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Esteghlal Khuzestan.
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Marked 8.42. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Esteghlal Khuzestan.
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Feb 2031
5 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Feb 2031
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market10 Feb 2031
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Sardar Ebrahimi reports back to Esteghlal Khuzestan with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Hossein Kanaani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Ehsan Shojaei gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ehsan Shojaei has just signed for Esteghlal Khuzestan, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Esteghlal have kept their man, and Esteghlal Khuzestan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings10 Feb 2031
Successful dribbles: 16. 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 dugout10 Feb 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Mohammad Ghorbani's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammad Javad Akbari, and the manager let it.