The Saba Sentinel
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Pejman Karimi
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
Naft Tehran watching Hossein Torabi
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Saba have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Karim Shojaei gets it from the manager
“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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Saeid Azmoun sends Saba past Saipa
It finished 1‑0, and it was Saeid Azmoun’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Saba.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Saba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pejman Ebrahimi 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
One of those days for Saeid Azmoun
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Saba
Omid 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
Pejman Gholizadeh 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 Saba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 Aug 2026
No place for Hossein Torabi in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hossein Torabi has his answer from Saba; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
- Player ratings The pass was always on for Mohammad Rezaeian
- Market Masoud Cheshmi leaves for nothing