Marked for Ehsan Azmoun
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Mar 2029
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Fayha lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market26 Mar 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Fayha, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jason 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ehsan Azmoun and Al-Fayha agree another 3 years.
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
Al-Fayha counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Fayha now.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Mar 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Fayha is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Jason 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch19 Mar 2029
“I watch every Al-Fayha game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Faisaly runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad19 Mar 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ehsan Azmoun commits to Al-Fayha for another 3 years.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Jason has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Fayha will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
A fracture rules Sardar Mohammadi out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rah Ahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rah Ahan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emanuel Carlos and Rah Ahan agree another 3 years.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Mohammad Hossein Zavari 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mehdi Pouraliganji has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Rah Ahan.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matías Montaño
39 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.
Market8 May 2028
“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.
Squad8 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 Apr 2028
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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Kaveh Cheshmi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Mar 2028
Mohammad Hossein Zavari 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saeid 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“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
Crisis
Match26 Feb 2028
34 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces28 Feb 2028
The mood at Naft Tehran 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A one-man rearguard from Alec Kann
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Pressure builds in the Naft Tehran boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market28 Feb 2028
Takuya Wada hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Naft Tehran can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Omid Nourafkan 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Feb 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Feb 2028
33 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match21 Feb 2028
Every point is an argument now for Naft Tehran
Position 16 and 6 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market21 Feb 2028
Mehdi Abdi hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Naft Tehran can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market21 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naft Tehran is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad21 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.38, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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.
Match12 Feb 2028
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Kei Uchiyama 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Henrique Trevisan 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.
Match12 Feb 2028
Esteghlal made Rah Ahan work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Saeid Azmoun was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.65. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Moharrami, and the manager let it.