Marked for Mohammad Pouraliganji
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Malavan, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad9 Nov 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.
Squad9 Nov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vouria Vafaei and Padideh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Padideh dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Shots: 10, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Back issues
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match9 Sep 2026
Cup progress for Padideh
A 1‑0 win over Naft Tehran, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.18, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market14 Sep 2026
Majid Azmoun hands in a written request
“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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Esteghlal wanted more than $1.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Match12 Sep 2026
Padideh keep winning on the road
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Kaveh Taremi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Padideh.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
Sepahan come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Padideh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 7 in, 4 out at Padideh
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The offer went to Esteghlal this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Mohammed Reza Azadi enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zob Ahan is saying, and nobody at Padideh is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Esteghlal wanted more than $110.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.