Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Leningradets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rodina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with Dinamo Moscow is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Svyatoslav Kozhedub 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Karim Torabi has just signed for Rodina, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Sergey Volkov 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.
The offer from Malavan for Morteza Azmoun 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.
Ashkan Taremi 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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 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.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
A loan enquiry to Sepahan: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Karim Nekounam was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Siah Jamegan dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutSaman Rezaeian asks for a word with the manager
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.
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.
He is 21 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.
Mohammad Hossein Sadeghi 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.
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.
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.
A mark of 7.29, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Karim Nekounam was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Siah Jamegan dressing room was either.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Morteza Azmoun had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
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.
Siah Jamegan asked and Gostaresh Foulad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Parham Ghannad is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
In brief
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Morteza Azmoun
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.