Abouazar Safarzadeh 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Saipa is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jasurbek Jaloliddinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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.
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.
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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Position 15 and 16 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The deal with Sogdiana 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.
Ali Dehghan 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.
Reza Ebrahimi was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $840.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sepahan have kept their man, and Saipa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadWords at Saipa training over how hard people work
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Reza Ghoddos 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Sepehr Simanpour 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.
Padideh asked and Esteghlal Khuzestan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Saipa has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
$840.0K settles it between the clubs for Reza Ebrahimi
Padideh have accepted the money. What Saipa do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Saipa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The fee is $420.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Malavan drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Ali Dehghan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
Saipa spend $420.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $420.0K for Abouazar Safarzadeh, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Esteghlal Ahvaz pay $160.0K, 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persepolis have kept their man, and Saipa 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Sepahan will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Amir Reza Jeddi has pre-agreed a move to Padideh, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Padideh, and 4 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
0‑1 to Tractor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Vahid Shojaei is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Padideh will try very hard not to make too much of it.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reza Ghoddos 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.
Mohammad Amini 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Morteza Beiranvand could afford to be generous.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vahid Shojaei is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Padideh can tell you which week it ends in.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Mani Sharifnejad
$3.2M 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Foolad had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
He is going to Sepahan, the club has $3.2M 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Esteghlal have kept their man, and Padideh 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.58 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
$1.4M on the table at Tractor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $55.6K — a club that wants Aria Hosseinifard enough to be asked twice.
$130.0K on the table at Foolad. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.