Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Siah Jamegan for Amir Hossein Neshatjoo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Siah Jamegan have kept their man, and Esteghlal Ahvaz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
13 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hesam Nafari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
$340.0K on the table at Siah Jamegan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Esteghlal Ahvaz have gone to Esteghlal Khuzestan with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rahim Alboughobaish and Esteghlal Ahvaz agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Esteghlal Ahvaz asked and Tractor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The new man at Esteghlal Ahvaz has worked with Omid Afshin before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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.
1‑4 to Esteghlal, 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.
“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 Esteghlal Ahvaz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hasan Jafari 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Malavan have kept their man, and Esteghlal Ahvaz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Esteghlal Ahvaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sepahan have kept their man, and Esteghlal Ahvaz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Morteza Taremi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Esteghlal Ahvaz, another week without a signature from Mehrdad Abdi.
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.
Position 16 and 15 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.
Esteghlal Ahvaz have gone to Foolad with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Amir Mohammad Panahi 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.
The chase for Amir Torabi ended with $75.0K changing hands and Siah Jamegan out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Esteghlal Ahvaz asked and Sepahan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Saeid Yazdani is 19, and Esteghlal Ahvaz have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
In brief
MarketA stepping stone, not a home, for Saeid Yazdani
Tractor arrived with $3.4M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Siah Jamegan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$840.0K settles it between the clubs for Saleh Hardani
Esteghlal have accepted the money. What Siah Jamegan do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Ali Ghoddos has gone, the accounts have $3.4M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sepahan keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Morteza Azmoun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Amir Torabi 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.
In brief
The dugoutRamin Hajsafi knocks on the manager's door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siah Jamegan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saeid Dejagah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Amir Torabi 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Siah Jamegan will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“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.
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morteza 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ali Ghoddos signs something — a contract at Siah Jamegan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Siah Jamegan asked and Al Shabab said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abolfazl Zoleykhaei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siah Jamegan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morteza 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siah Jamegan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Siah Jamegan can tell you which week it ends in.
0‑1 to Esteghlal Ahvaz, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abolfazl Zoleykhaei 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“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.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
“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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Siah Jamegan the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abolfazl Zoleykhaei 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Siah Jamegan told Shukron Yo'ldoshev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Amir Torabi 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Javad Zergani’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Siah Jamegan needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Siah Jamegan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saeid Dejagah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Morteza Ebrahimi is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Morteza Ebrahimi has his answer from Siah Jamegan; what he does with it is the next window’s story.