Marked for Ehsan Azmoun
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Mohammad Noorafkan 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 Nov 2027
A 4‑3 win over Esteghlal Ahvaz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match13 Nov 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Gostaresh Foulad and Esteghlal Ahvaz, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The terraces15 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mahamadou Sangaré 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
30 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match15 Nov 2027
16 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout15 Nov 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Nov 2027
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.
Match6 Nov 2027
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 ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Nov 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
0‑1 to Tractor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ehsan Vafaei and Gostaresh Foulad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Nov 2027
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Gostaresh Foulad will try not to make too much of it.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Saman Karimi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saman Pouraliganji, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Sep 2027
19 days out for Mehdi Khodadad after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gostaresh Foulad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market27 Sep 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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A brace, and Morteza Moharrami takes the afternoon — 8.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Morteza Moharrami provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ehsan Azmoun commits to Gostaresh Foulad for another 4 years.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Mohammad Noorafkan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match25 Sep 2027
Beaten 3‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Reza Ghoddos beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 3‑4 Saman Karimi left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Mehdi Khodadad out for 33 days
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.
Market13 Sep 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Saipa moved on, Morteza Azmoun reports back to Gostaresh Foulad, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Mahamadou Sangaré is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Gostaresh Foulad will try again when the window opens; Siah Jamegan may not be selling by then.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Mahamadou Sangaré and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match11 Sep 2027
0‑1 to Sepahan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 Sep 2027
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Saman Karimi to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Jul 2027
The knee: Ali Azmoun out for 45 days
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gostaresh Foulad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Jul 2027
88 days out for Mehdi Khodadad after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gostaresh Foulad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Everything agreed with Esteghlal Khuzestan, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Gostaresh Foulad offered $160.0K; Foolad said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad26 Jul 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Gostaresh Foulad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Asan Vaniyev 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
Upbeat
Squad5 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Mehdi Khodadad out for 113 days
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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Gostaresh Foulad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Egnatia Rrogozhinë, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Mohammad Noorafkan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vahid Khodadad commits to Gostaresh Foulad for another 3 years.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Gostaresh Foulad asked and Paralimni said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan move for Ivan Gulko is in the works
Gostaresh Foulad have made the call to MFK Skalica. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan move for Duje Matić is in the works
Gostaresh Foulad have made the call to Hajduk Split. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gostaresh Foulad will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces28 Jun 2027
Supporters turn on the $4.0K sale of Amir Jahanbakhsh
He is going to Naft Tehran, the club has $4.0K 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
$4.2M was the most the club would pay and Siah Jamegan were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FK Senica have kept their man, and Gostaresh Foulad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Mohammad Noorafkan 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Market28 Jun 2027
Naft Tehran pay $4.0K, 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Ali Azmoun 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Gostaresh Foulad have made the call to Al-Orobah. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Saman Pouraliganji is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 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.
The dugout7 Jun 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Mehdi Khodadad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Gostaresh Foulad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Zlin: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Mehdi Khodadad asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Market7 Jun 2027
The Ehsan Azmoun story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ehsan Azmoun signs something — a contract at Gostaresh Foulad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Open for business: Gostaresh Foulad enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 May 2027
Mohammad Noorafkan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad10 May 2027
39 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market10 May 2027
The Ehsan Azmoun story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ehsan Azmoun signs something — a contract at Gostaresh Foulad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout10 May 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 Gostaresh Foulad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout10 May 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Shahriar Yazdani plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Squad10 May 2027
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Apr 2027
41 days out for Amir Jahanbakhsh after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gostaresh Foulad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
70 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Vahid Khodadad and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Morteza Azmoun 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 Gostaresh Foulad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Amir Jahanbakhsh out for 72 days
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.
Market15 Mar 2027
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Gostaresh Foulad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Mohammad Noorafkan 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Gostaresh Foulad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Feb 2027
33 goals and a season average of 7.78. 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. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match22 Feb 2027
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 44 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Squad22 Feb 2027
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match20 Feb 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vahid Ebrahimi and Gostaresh Foulad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Vahid Ebrahimi
“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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Esteghlal Ahvaz had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad8 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Saeid Moharrami
31 goals and a season average of 7.76 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
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
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.
Match6 Feb 2027
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Shahriar Yazdani and Gostaresh Foulad agree another 4 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Mohammad Noorafkan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match6 Feb 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Morteza Moharrami. 3‑1 against Saipa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Reza Ghoddos beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Saman Karimi, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Saeid Moharrami
25 goals and a season average of 7.65 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Amir Jahanbakhsh out for 146 days
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.
Market4 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 ratings4 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.90, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Gostaresh Foulad have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Mohammad Noorafkan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match2 Jan 2027
Saba made Gostaresh Foulad work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Reza Ghoddos 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 ratings4 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Ehsan Azmoun at his very best
Marked 8.07. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Gostaresh Foulad.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gostaresh Foulad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Dec 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gostaresh Foulad may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Mohammad Noorafkan 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sepahan were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ali Azmoun 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Saman Karimi on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gostaresh Foulad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match21 Nov 2026
Persepolis left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Saman Karimi left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Asan Vaniyev
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
Siah Jamegan next, and one man in the Gostaresh Foulad dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 15. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Oct 2026
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Esteghlal Khuzestan the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Gostaresh Foulad will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A brace, and Morteza Azmoun takes the afternoon — 9.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Morteza Azmoun provided it, and the 9.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mehdi Khodadad and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Morteza Azmoun
“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.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Esteghlal Khuzestan leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Saman Karimi after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ehsan Azmoun’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mohammad Noorafkan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.89, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match19 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Saba. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Saeid Yazdani was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
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
Match2 Sep 2026
Out, 1‑2 to Persepolis, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match5 Sep 2026
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Gostaresh Foulad did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Gostaresh Foulad until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Match5 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Gostaresh Foulad are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LNZ have kept their man, and Gostaresh Foulad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Ehsan Azmoun
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Squad
Ali Azmoun is no longer first choice
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Aug 2026
3‑6 to Persepolis, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 28 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A goal and an assist for Ehsan Azmoun — 7.94
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.94 beside his name.
Match8 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Gostaresh Foulad and Persepolis, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ehsan Rezaeian 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Gostaresh Foulad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.