Marked for Vouria Jahanbakhsh
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Mar 2027
Vouria Mohammadi damages knee ligaments — 62 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Omid Dejagah has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Gostaresh Foulad can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Mar 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 Gostaresh Foulad can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gostaresh Foulad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sardar Nekounam and Gostaresh Foulad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Gostaresh Foulad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vouria Mohammadi
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gostaresh Foulad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Pressure builds in the Gostaresh Foulad boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gostaresh Foulad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Mar 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Ramin Azmoun 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.
Loan watch1 Mar 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 Gostaresh Foulad, and 11 appearances in 28 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Gostaresh Foulad's wait for a win
31 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gostaresh Foulad has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
Anger at Gostaresh Foulad 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Vouria Mohammadi damages knee ligaments — 78 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gostaresh Foulad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Ramin Azmoun 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 Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 Feb 2027
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Kaveh Mohammadi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Gostaresh Foulad's wait for a win
30 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gostaresh Foulad has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Vouria Mohammadi damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Match15 Feb 2027
6 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match13 Feb 2027
0‑7 against Tractor, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Feb 2027
Ahmad Yazdani 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 Gostaresh Foulad can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ramin Azmoun 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
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Gostaresh Foulad and Tractor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Feb 2027
The run now stands at 29, and the questions being asked around Gostaresh Foulad are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Vouria Mohammadi damages knee ligaments — 94 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Market8 Feb 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 Gostaresh Foulad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 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 Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sardar Nekounam, and the manager let it.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match6 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Saipa will be the happier side with the point.
Market8 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kaveh Mohammadi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Jan 2027
The run now stands at 28, and the questions being asked around Gostaresh Foulad are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vouria Mohammadi
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gostaresh Foulad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The interim tag comes off Omid Dejagah
Gostaresh Foulad interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Omid Dejagah keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match30 Jan 2027
6 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Mahan Bandani 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
1‑2 to Naft Tehran, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Feb 2027
39 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Jan 2027
The run now stands at 27, and the questions being asked around Gostaresh Foulad are no longer polite ones.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Anger at Gostaresh Foulad 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gostaresh Foulad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gostaresh Foulad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market25 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ramin Azmoun 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 Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Jan 2027
5 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Gostaresh Foulad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi 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.