Marked for Alireza Rezaeian
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
The Siah Jamegan board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market1 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Siah Jamegan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2027
24 goals and a season average of 7.54. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
No sign of nerves from Majid Torabi at 20 — 7.88
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Majid Torabi did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“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.
Match20 Feb 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Siah Jamegan
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Ashkan Shojaei
23 goals and a season average of 7.54 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Feb 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Siah Jamegan
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Ashkan Shojaei at his very best
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Siah Jamegan.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Sina Ghanbarpour will call it something else in private.
Match13 Feb 2027
A 2‑2 draw with Esteghlal Ahvaz leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Chances created: 10. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Ashkan Shojaei
22 goals and a season average of 7.52 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hossein Yazdani 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
Tractor left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Feb 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.