Marked for Majid Pouraliganji
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Feb 2028
No end in sight to Siah Jamegan's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siah Jamegan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Keisuke Sakaiya damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Match26 Feb 2028
0‑3 against Rah Ahan, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market28 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 The request is on a desk at Siah Jamegan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Siah Jamegan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Ali Yazdani 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 Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Ehsan Shojaei 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Majid Pouraliganji, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Jan 2028
Saba come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Siah Jamegan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Jan 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 Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
Match8 Jan 2028
4 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.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Ali Yazdani 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 Jan 2028
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
Zob Ahan left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“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.
Loan watch10 Jan 2028
“I watch every Siah Jamegan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Naft Tehran runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Jan 2028
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.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Market3 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zayed Abdulraheem will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Siah Jamegan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market3 Jan 2028
The name of Saeid Beiranvand has come up in conversations Siah Jamegan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Match1 Jan 2028
0‑2 to Saba, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Dec 2027
Position 15, 10 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
Pressure builds in the Siah Jamegan boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market27 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
Market27 Dec 2027
Only the photograph left for Marco Trevisan
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Trevisan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Siah Jamegan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.74, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad27 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Saman Rezaeian
“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.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces20 Dec 2027
Anger at Siah Jamegan spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market20 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Dec 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.
Market20 Dec 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Morteza Pouraliganji will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Siah Jamegan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
Saman Rezaeian scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Sepahan, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad20 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Pejman Karimi
“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.
Match18 Dec 2027
Siah Jamegan hit back inside 3 minutes
Sepahan held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Siah Jamegan answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Siah Jamegan are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Omid Azmoun has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match4 Dec 2027
6 matches without a win for Siah Jamegan
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Siah Jamegan are no longer polite ones.
Market6 Dec 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.
Market6 Dec 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Hussain Mahmood is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Ali Yazdani 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A move Behnam Teymourian would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Behnam Teymourian is living that version at Siah Jamegan, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Nov 2027
“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 Siah Jamegan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Ali Yazdani 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 Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Nov 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
“I did not go to Naft Tehran to sit and watch. I want to come back to Siah Jamegan and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Keisuke Sakaiya 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Juan Guarino
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Siah Jamegan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The terraces15 Nov 2027
The spotlight tightens on Mehdi Vafaei
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces25 Oct 2027
Anger at Siah Jamegan spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match23 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Saipa spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market25 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
Market25 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Siah Jamegan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Mehdi Vafaei 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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match23 Oct 2027
Saipa made Siah Jamegan work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Majid Pouraliganji was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
The chances came and went for Saman Rezaeian
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Sep 2027
13 matches without a win for Siah Jamegan
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Siah Jamegan are no longer polite ones.
Market20 Sep 2027
“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 Siah Jamegan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Sep 2027
There were 6 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ehsan Shojaei is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match18 Sep 2027
1‑3 to Saba, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match18 Sep 2027
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Ali Yazdani 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch20 Sep 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Siah Jamegan, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Sep 2027
No end in sight to Siah Jamegan's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siah Jamegan has to find a result from somewhere.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 1‑4 by Malavan, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market13 Sep 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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Takefusa Osako, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Ali Rezaei is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Hossein Azmoun has improved at 28, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Sep 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“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
Uneasy
Squad30 Aug 2027
Hossein Gholizadeh 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.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
Anger at Siah Jamegan spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match28 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Siah Jamegan's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siah Jamegan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Aug 2027
There were 9 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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 Siah Jamegan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Zayed Abdulraheem is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ali Yazdani 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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Marked 9.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Aug 2027
Hossein Gholizadeh damages knee ligaments — 59 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
There were 9 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.
Match21 Aug 2027
8 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market23 Aug 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Ali Yazdani 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 Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market23 Aug 2027
Business is business: Ahmad Karimi goes
Esteghlal Khuzestan paid $410.0K and Siah Jamegan took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Match21 Aug 2027
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Aug 2027
Hossein Gholizadeh damages knee ligaments — 66 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Mehdi Vafaei 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 Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match14 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Siah Jamegan's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siah Jamegan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Ali Rezaei is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ehsan Shojaei and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match14 Aug 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Marked 5.18, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Morteza Karimi
37 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Saba say no — this time
The offer from Rah Ahan for Pejman Cheshmi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Saba
Masaki Okino 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Siah Jamegan pay $250.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Majid Nekounam 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.
Squad14 Jun 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.
In brief
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Market
The Vahid Taremi conversation is coming
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Market
Experience through the door at Saba
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Keisuke Sakaiya out for 93 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siah Jamegan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market14 Jun 2027
Mehdi Vafaei 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 Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
Supporters turn on the $440.0K sale of Milad Khodadad
He is going to Persepolis, the club has $440.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Hussain Mahmood is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market14 Jun 2027
The chase for Majid Pouraliganji ended with $250.0K changing hands and Saba out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Feb 2027
There were 6 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A first appearance Milad Ghoddos will want to forget — 5.65
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.65, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ashkan Pouraliganji 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Saba
Kaveh 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Saba's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Saba has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Saba
Masaki Okino 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Masaki Okino
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Saba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Majid 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
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
Masaki Okino 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 Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vahid Jahanbakhsh. 2‑1 against Esteghlal Ahvaz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.94, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Vahid Jahanbakhsh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.54. 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Saba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Majid Nekounam 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.
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Saba have made Ehsan Hosseini available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Saba
Masaki Okino 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ashkan Pouraliganji 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.
Squad17 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.
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
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hossein Ghoddos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market17 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sardar Ghoddos has his answer from Saba; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match15 Aug 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Tractor defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.