“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padideh can pretend not to have heard.
Ali Cheshmi 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Pablo Marí 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.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ehsan Mohammadi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 25 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Shahriar Nekounam is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alireza Torabi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Ali Cheshmi 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.
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.
At 25 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.
In brief
SquadMasoud Hajsafi falls out with a teammate over standards
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Omid Moharrami is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The deal that would have taken Mehdi Beiranvand to Esteghlal Ahvaz has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Padideh with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 30 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masoud Hajsafi 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.
Ali Cheshmi 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 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Padideh know it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padideh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tatsuya Tabira 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Seyed Ali Yahyazadeh has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Padideh have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ali Cheshmi 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 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Hossein Darvishi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Padideh have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Two goals and a mark of 9.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padideh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Padideh know 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Padideh and Gostaresh Foulad, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“I watch every Padideh game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Saipa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Ali Cheshmi 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.
Marked 8.82 — 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Esteghlal Ahvaz tried to reorganise, Padideh did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
“I watch every Padideh game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Saipa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padideh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Padideh, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ali Cheshmi 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.
A 2‑0 win over Esteghlal Khuzestan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padideh can pretend not to have heard.
“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 Padideh hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ali Cheshmi 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padideh can pretend not to have heard.
Ali Cheshmi 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.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“I watch every Padideh game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Saipa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saipa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Saipa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ehsan Mohammadi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
1‑1 against Esteghlal Khuzestan, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
“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 Padideh, and it is not being withdrawn.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Mehdi Beiranvand: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Ali Cheshmi 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.
“I watch every Padideh game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Saipa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saipa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Mohammad Omri 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ehsan Mohammadi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Alejo Antilef 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohammad Askari 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Padideh have paid $640.0K for Nima Entezari, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Ali Cheshmi 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.
“I watch every Padideh game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Saipa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padideh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Omid Moharrami from Siah Jamegan for $42.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Exequiel Márquez and Padideh agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
6 new faces, and Padideh are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
Nobody at Padideh will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
$330.0K is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ramin Cheshmi was one of the reasons people came, and $330.0K does not replace that by itself.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padideh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The terraces28 Jun 2027
Padideh spend $340.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $340.0K for Reza Galedar, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Esteghlal arrived with $5.0M 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.
He is going to Esteghlal, the club has $5.0M 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.
Ali Cheshmi 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ehsan Mohammadi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
Padideh spend $1.4M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.4M for Omid Moharrami, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.