Marked for Mehdi Karimi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 2027
A row about effort at Padideh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reza Ghoddos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 May 2027
Words exchanged at Padideh
Ahmad Vafaei 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Mehdi Karimi slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mehdi Karimi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Majid 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.
The dugout3 May 2027
Ahmad Vafaei has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Market3 May 2027
The Kaveh Taremi talk will not go away
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mehdi Karimi and Padideh agree another 5 years.
Squad12 Apr 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Padideh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reza Ghoddos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Amir Dejagah
“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 dugout12 Apr 2027
Reza Ghoddos gets picked when it counts
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 Reza Ghoddos is on it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Mehdi Karimi 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Padideh
Alireza Taremi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Padideh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reza Ghoddos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Padideh told Alireza Enayatzadeh something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Sardar Mohammadi. Padideh will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Mehdi Karimi 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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jan 2027
$840.0K from Saipa for Reza Ebrahimi. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Padideh sell a favourite for $840.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Reza Ebrahimi was one of the reasons people came, and $840.0K does not replace that by itself.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Taremi 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 targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sepahan have kept their man, and Padideh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Padideh
Ahmad Vafaei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Zagreb: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Persepolis have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vouria Vafaei
30 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Padideh out of the cup
Esteghlal ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Padideh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reza Ghoddos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Kaveh Taremi is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.33 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Morteza Beiranvand to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Amir Dejagah
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout7 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohammad Amini is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Padideh
Alireza 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Majid Azmoun has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Padideh.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Mohammad Pouraliganji is on it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Majid Azmoun 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Padideh. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Vahid Shojaei keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Padideh say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Next up at home: Gostaresh Foulad, who go into it in position 9. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.