Marked for Mohammad Karimi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Mar 2032
A fracture rules Milad Moharrami out for 54 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persepolis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market8 Mar 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Persepolis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Mar 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohammad Hossein Sadeghi and Persepolis agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Ramin Hajsafi 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.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Words at Persepolis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Gera 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.
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
$2.8M on the table at Persepolis
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
Wages swallow 94% of the Persepolis income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout8 Mar 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammad Karimi, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Mar 2032
Mehdi Ghayedi 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 Mehdi Ghayedi is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Jan 2032
Mehdi Ghayedi is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.76 with 29 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match24 Jan 2032
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Saipa, and it could have been more.
Market26 Jan 2032
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Saba waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Persepolis is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad26 Jan 2032
The match ball belongs to Mehdi Ghayedi, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings26 Jan 2032
Age has not caught Mehdi Ghayedi yet — 9.75
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.75 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The dugout26 Jan 2032
Mohammad Karimi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persepolis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market26 Jan 2032
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ali Dastmarzeh had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market26 Jan 2032
“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 Persepolis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market26 Jan 2032
Only the photograph left for Ali Hassani
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ali Hassani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persepolis the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad8 Sep 2031
5 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings8 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 37. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match6 Sep 2031
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 8‑1 against Saba, and it could have been more.
Match3 Sep 2031
A 2‑1 win over Gostaresh Foulad, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match3 Sep 2031
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Persepolis scored in the 113th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad8 Sep 2031
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market8 Sep 2031
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Amir Mehdi Maghsoudi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings8 Sep 2031
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.42, and nobody on the pitch better.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Jun 2031
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persepolis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market16 Jun 2031
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Esteghlal had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market16 Jun 2031
The offer from Foolad for Ali Hassani 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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Mohammad Karimi arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mohammad Karimi has, at Persepolis, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Ramin Hajsafi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad16 Jun 2031
Dániel Gera 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Jun 2031
$1.1M from Persepolis for Mohammad Karimi. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Market16 Jun 2031
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mansoor Mohammad had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market16 Jun 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Siah Jamegan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market16 Jun 2031
“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 terraces16 Jun 2031
Siah Jamegan sell a favourite for $1.1M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Mohammad Karimi was one of the reasons people came, and $1.1M does not replace that by itself.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Everything agreed with Persepolis, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Alireza Shojaei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Ramezani 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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
32 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Jun 2031
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persepolis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market9 Jun 2031
Esteghlal come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Persepolis did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market9 Jun 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Persepolis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
Persepolis asked and Tractor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market9 Jun 2031
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Persepolis have done the hard part with Siah Jamegan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market9 Jun 2031
The phone has started ringing about Mojtaba Fakhrian again, and this time the name on the line is Esteghlal. Persepolis are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Dániel Gera in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persepolis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
Persepolis have gone to Padideh with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces9 Jun 2031
Anger at Siah Jamegan spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market9 Jun 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Siah Jamegan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shahriar Torabi, and the manager let it.
Market9 Jun 2031
The name of Artin Rostami keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Siah Jamegan say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
Saeid Vafaei knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Siah Jamegan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Jun 2031
Payam Niazmand damages knee ligaments — 66 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
Persepolis book their European place
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match28 May 2031
Esteghlal ended it 3‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad2 Jun 2031
25 goals and a season average of 7.53. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Transfer targets2 Jun 2031
The offer went to Padideh 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.
Market2 Jun 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Persepolis can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Jun 2031
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Persepolis will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Transfer targets2 Jun 2031
Persepolis asked and Saipa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Jun 2031
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Siah Jamegan have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad2 Jun 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
Omid Cheshmi 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 Omid Cheshmi is on it.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Moharrami 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.
Market2 Jun 2031
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.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
The window is open, and with it the only month of the year when a supporter’s hopes are limited by nothing but arithmetic. The board know the arithmetic; the supporters know the hopes.
The terraces2 Jun 2031
Supporters make their feelings known about Mohammad Karimi
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Siah Jamegan would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Siah Jamegan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 May 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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 dugout26 May 2031
Mohammad Karimi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan 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.
Squad26 May 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mehdi Moharrami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market26 May 2031
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.
Squad26 May 2031
Mahan Bandani has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Siah Jamegan that is a harder question to answer.
The dugout26 May 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mehdi Moharrami trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 May 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 May 2031
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.
The dugout19 May 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces12 May 2031
The mood at Siah Jamegan has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad12 May 2031
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market12 May 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Omid Khodadad has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market12 May 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hossein Nekounam 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.
Market12 May 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Omid Azmoun 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.
Market12 May 2031
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saman Taremi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Moharrami 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.
Squad12 May 2031
Alireza Shojaei has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Siah Jamegan that is a harder question to answer.
The dugout12 May 2031
Ivan Ivanovic knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Ivanovic trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 May 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammad Karimi and Siah Jamegan agree another 3 years.
The dugout5 May 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad5 May 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad5 May 2031
35 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout5 May 2031
Omid Cheshmi 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 Omid Cheshmi is on it.
Squad5 May 2031
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Moharrami 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Apr 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Artin Rostami and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 years.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
Mohammad Karimi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan 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.
Market28 Apr 2031
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.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
The manager makes an example of Vahid Hajsafi
“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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Mahan Bandani has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Siah Jamegan that is a harder question to answer.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
Saeid Vafaei 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.
Boardroom28 Apr 2031
The Siah Jamegan production line keeps running
27 graduates out of an academy now rated 4 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
The manager comes out for Omid Cheshmi
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Omid Cheshmi has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Apr 2031
“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.
Squad21 Apr 2031
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.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Moharrami 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 dugout21 Apr 2031
The manager makes an example of Saeid Taremi
“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 dugout21 Apr 2031
“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 dugout21 Apr 2031
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
Uneasy
The terraces14 Apr 2031
Supporters organise against the Siah Jamegan board
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.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siah Jamegan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mehdi Moharrami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“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 dugout14 Apr 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ahmad Jahanbakhsh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout7 Apr 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad7 Apr 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Ramezani 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 Apr 2031
64 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
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.
Market7 Apr 2031
No place for Ahmad Taremi in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ahmad Taremi has his answer from Siah Jamegan; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Mar 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ramezani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
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 Karimi is on it.
Market31 Mar 2031
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.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
Ivan Ivanovic knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Siah Jamegan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Boardroom31 Mar 2031
The Siah Jamegan production line keeps running
27 graduates out of an academy now rated 4 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Mansoor Mohammad plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Mar 2031
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.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muhammadbobur Karimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
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
Uneasy
The terraces17 Mar 2031
The mood at Siah Jamegan has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market17 Mar 2031
“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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Ramezani 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 dugout17 Mar 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saeid Taremi, and the manager let it.
Market17 Mar 2031
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Vahid Hajsafi may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Mar 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ramezani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
Omid Cheshmi 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 Omid Cheshmi is on it.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmad Jahanbakhsh, and the manager let it.
Market10 Mar 2031
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.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
Saeid Vafaei knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Siah Jamegan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout3 Mar 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siah Jamegan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 Mar 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abolfazl Mohammadi and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhammadbobur Karimov 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.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Masoud Azmoun named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Masoud Azmoun is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout3 Mar 2031
Mohammad Karimi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan 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 Mar 2031
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.
Market3 Mar 2031
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Vahid Hajsafi has his answer from Siah Jamegan; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout3 Mar 2031
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Siah Jamegan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Feb 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match24 Feb 2031
The season ends: position 11 for Siah Jamegan
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 29 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Player ratings24 Feb 2031
Mohammad Karimi, 33, rolls back the years — 7.87
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad24 Feb 2031
17 goals and a season average of 7.32. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad24 Feb 2031
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.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Alireza Ramezani 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.
Match22 Feb 2031
Rah Ahan left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ali Ghoddos after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mehdi Moharrami, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces17 Feb 2031
The mood at Siah Jamegan has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad17 Feb 2031
A season average of 7.53 with 27 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad17 Feb 2031
The match ball belongs to Alireza Ramezani, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market17 Feb 2031
“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.
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Ninety minutes of Alireza Ramezani at his very best
Marked 9.38. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Siah Jamegan.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Omid Cheshmi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
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Match
The drought breaks for Siah Jamegan
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Saeid Vafaei gets it from the manager
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Feb 2031
Defences have started doubling up on Alireza Ramezani
24 goals and a season average of 7.48 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match8 Feb 2031
Siah Jamegan are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match8 Feb 2031
No end in sight to Siah Jamegan's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siah Jamegan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Match8 Feb 2031
1‑2 to Tractor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
“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 dugout10 Feb 2031
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 Ali Ghoddos to a room that had heard them before.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muhammadbobur Karimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
Omid Cheshmi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Feb 2031
A one-man rearguard from Saeid Taremi
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siah Jamegan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Window shuts: 0 in, 1 out at Siah Jamegan
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Match1 Feb 2031
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match1 Feb 2031
4 matches without a win for Siah Jamegan
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Siah Jamegan are no longer polite ones.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Alireza Ramezani 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.
Match1 Feb 2031
Saipa left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Ali Ghoddos left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Jan 2031
23 goals and a season average of 7.47. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad27 Jan 2031
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad27 Jan 2031
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.
Match25 Jan 2031
Naft Tehran left with the points after a 3‑5 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match25 Jan 2031
Siah Jamegan are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match25 Jan 2031
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Siah Jamegan and Naft Tehran in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings27 Jan 2031
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.44, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Omid Cheshmi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings27 Jan 2031
Marked 7.24 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces20 Jan 2031
Supporters organise against the Siah Jamegan board
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.
Match18 Jan 2031
Beaten 0‑3 by Esteghlal Khuzestan, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market20 Jan 2031
“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.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Defences have started doubling up on Mohammad Karimi
16 goals and a season average of 7.34 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match18 Jan 2031
Siah Jamegan are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Masoud Azmoun, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Jan 2031
A muscle injury and 16 days out for Morteza Ebrahimi
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Siah Jamegan will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Boardroom20 Jan 2031
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Jan 2031
Defences have started doubling up on Alireza Ramezani
20 goals and a season average of 7.44 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings13 Jan 2031
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ramezani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings13 Jan 2031
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.53, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad13 Jan 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mehdi Moharrami commits to Siah Jamegan for another 3 years.
Match11 Jan 2031
A 2‑2 draw with Padideh leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings13 Jan 2031
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 dugout13 Jan 2031
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
Upbeat
Player ratings6 Jan 2031
A brace, and Alireza Ramezani takes the afternoon — 9.25
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alireza Ramezani provided it, and the 9.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Defences have started doubling up on Alireza Ramezani
19 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings6 Jan 2031
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siah Jamegan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match4 Jan 2031
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Siah Jamegan have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Match4 Jan 2031
It finished 3‑2, and it was Alireza Ramezani’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Siah Jamegan.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ramezani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings6 Jan 2031
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Dec 2030
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
Two goals and a mark of 9.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
Saeid Noorafkan: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Siah Jamegan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Dec 2030
A season average of 7.35 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad30 Dec 2030
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.
Match28 Dec 2030
Mohammad Karimi among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Mohammad Karimi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Siah Jamegan and Saba.
Match28 Dec 2030
Saba made Siah Jamegan work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.76, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces23 Dec 2030
The mood at Siah Jamegan has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match21 Dec 2030
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Malavan, and it could have been more.
Player ratings23 Dec 2030
A brace, and Mohammad Karimi takes the afternoon — 8.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohammad Karimi provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market23 Dec 2030
“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.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ramezani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Dec 2030
12 goals and a season average of 7.24. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings23 Dec 2030
Omid Cheshmi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings23 Dec 2030
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings16 Dec 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad16 Dec 2030
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Player ratings16 Dec 2030
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match14 Dec 2030
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Siah Jamegan and Sepahan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match14 Dec 2030
Sepahan left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Alireza Ramezani 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 dugout16 Dec 2030
The manager makes an example of Alireza Shojaei
“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 dugout16 Dec 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑4 Ali Ghoddos left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Dec 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pejman Beiranvand and Siah Jamegan agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match7 Dec 2030
Mohammad Karimi scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Foolad, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ali Ghoddos after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
Something was said to Mansoor Mohammad and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhammadbobur Karimov 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 dugout9 Dec 2030
Mohammad Karimi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan 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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
Somebody else is better right now than Vahid Hajsafi
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Dec 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad2 Dec 2030
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings2 Dec 2030
Successful dribbles: 26. 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 ratings2 Dec 2030
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.03, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Alireza Ramezani
16 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad2 Dec 2030
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.
Player ratings2 Dec 2030
A performance of 9.53 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad2 Dec 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pejman Beiranvand and Siah Jamegan agree another 2 years.
Match30 Nov 2030
It finished 3‑1, and it was Alireza Ramezani’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Siah Jamegan.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Nov 2030
Supporters organise against the Siah Jamegan board
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.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match23 Nov 2030
Beaten 0‑6 by Esteghlal, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match25 Nov 2030
Every point is an argument now for Siah Jamegan
Position 14 and 13 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.
Market25 Nov 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match23 Nov 2030
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Siah Jamegan and Esteghlal, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ramezani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Nov 2030
1‑6 to Persepolis, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad18 Nov 2030
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings18 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 30. 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 ratings18 Nov 2030
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.88, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Match16 Nov 2030
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Siah Jamegan and Persepolis in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
“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.
Boardroom18 Nov 2030
Nobody left the Siah Jamegan 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 dugout18 Nov 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑6, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Nov 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ramezani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match9 Nov 2030
Rah Ahan left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match11 Nov 2030
Half the programme played, position 13, 13 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Ali Ghoddos to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
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.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
“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 dugout11 Nov 2030
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Nov 2030
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Esteghlal Ahvaz, and it could have been more.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
A brace, and Alireza Ramezani takes the afternoon — 9.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alireza Ramezani provided it, and the 9.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Mohammad Karimi, 33, rolls back the years — 9.08
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.08 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad4 Nov 2030
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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Alireza Ramezani
13 goals and a season average of 7.29 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match2 Nov 2030
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Esteghlal Ahvaz. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Alireza Ramezani 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.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Omid Cheshmi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Mahan Bandani at his very best
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The dugout
Pejman Beiranvand gets it from the manager
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces28 Oct 2030
Supporters organise against the Siah Jamegan board
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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match28 Oct 2030
Position 14, 10 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market28 Oct 2030
“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.
Match26 Oct 2030
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.63, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Oct 2030
No clean sheets in sight for Siah Jamegan
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad28 Oct 2030
11 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Oct 2030
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Mohammad Karimi will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Siah Jamegan escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match19 Oct 2030
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Oct 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Reza Pouraliganji and Siah Jamegan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ramezani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Oct 2030
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
The manager makes an example of Alireza Shojaei
“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.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Oct 2030
A defender's goal wins it for Siah Jamegan — 7.46
1 for Abdulaziz Al-Marzooqi, marked 7.46, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Match12 Oct 2030
4 matches without a win for Siah Jamegan
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Siah Jamegan are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Oct 2030
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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdulaziz Al-Marzooqi and Siah Jamegan agree another 3 years.
Match12 Oct 2030
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Siah Jamegan and Naft Tehran in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match12 Oct 2030
Naft Tehran left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Alireza Ramezani 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 dugout14 Oct 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ali Ghoddos after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings14 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Oct 2030
Beaten 1‑4 by Esteghlal Khuzestan, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad7 Oct 2030
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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 dugout7 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Reza Pouraliganji, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Oct 2030
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Siah Jamegan who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Boardroom7 Oct 2030
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑4 Ali Ghoddos left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muhammadbobur Karimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces30 Sep 2030
The mood at Siah Jamegan has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match28 Sep 2030
Beaten 3‑6 by Padideh, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad30 Sep 2030
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match30 Sep 2030
Every point is an argument now for Siah Jamegan
Position 14 and 8 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.
Market30 Sep 2030
“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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Match28 Sep 2030
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Siah Jamegan and Padideh in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.65, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Sep 2030
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ramezani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
“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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Ashkan Karimi
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Siah Jamegan will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
Omid Cheshmi 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 Omid Cheshmi is on it.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ali Ghoddos after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match21 Sep 2030
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Zob Ahan will be the happier side with the point.
Market23 Sep 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohammad Karimi signs something — a contract at Siah Jamegan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Two goals and a mark of 9.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad16 Sep 2030
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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Shahriar Torabi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Match14 Sep 2030
Mohammad Karimi among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Mohammad Karimi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Siah Jamegan and Saba.
Match14 Sep 2030
A 4‑2 win over Saba, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match14 Sep 2030
No clean sheets in sight for Siah Jamegan
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.38, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Marked 8.21 — 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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Sep 2030
1‑6 against Esteghlal, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces9 Sep 2030
Siah Jamegan are taken apart by Esteghlal — and the town wants answers
It finished 1-6. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Match4 Sep 2030
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Siah Jamegan and Esteghlal in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Ramezani 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.
Squad9 Sep 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ahmad Jahanbakhsh and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 years.
Match7 Sep 2030
1‑2 to Malavan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces2 Sep 2030
Supporters organise against the Siah Jamegan board
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.
The dugout2 Sep 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Window shuts: 8 in, 10 out at Siah Jamegan
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Player ratings2 Sep 2030
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.98, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Alireza Ramezani 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.
Transfer targets2 Sep 2030
Siah Jamegan ran out of time with Persepolis. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Match31 Aug 2030
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Sepahan had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings2 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Aug 2030
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Ivan Ivanovic is a better footballer than he was
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.
Transfer targets26 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persepolis have kept their man, and Siah Jamegan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces26 Aug 2030
He is 23 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.
Match24 Aug 2030
A 1‑0 win over Foolad, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Ninety minutes of Alireza Ramezani at his very best
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Siah Jamegan.
Squad26 Aug 2030
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 dugout26 Aug 2030
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ali Ghoddos, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Aug 2030
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zob Ahan had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match17 Aug 2030
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad19 Aug 2030
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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Ramezani 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.
Match17 Aug 2030
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match17 Aug 2030
Gostaresh Foulad left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Aug 2030
“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 dugout19 Aug 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Ali Ghoddos left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout19 Aug 2030
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
Crisis
Squad12 Aug 2030
There were 14 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match10 Aug 2030
Beaten 1‑5 by Esteghlal, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market12 Aug 2030
The name of Pejman Beiranvand has come up in conversations Siah Jamegan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Alireza Ramezani 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 dugout12 Aug 2030
“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.
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
Nobody left the Siah Jamegan 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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ahmad Taremi commits to Siah Jamegan for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces5 Aug 2030
Supporters organise against the Siah Jamegan board
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.
Match3 Aug 2030
Beaten 0‑3 by Persepolis, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad5 Aug 2030
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.
Market5 Aug 2030
“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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
6 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.
Player ratings5 Aug 2030
Both jobs done by Omid Cheshmi — 7.22
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.22, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Market5 Aug 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ahmad Mohammadi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market5 Aug 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Masoud Hosseini has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Siah Jamegan
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
The deal with Persepolis 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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mansoor Mohammad commits to Siah Jamegan for another 3 years.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ramezani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
Omid Cheshmi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan 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.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
“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 dugout29 Jul 2030
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Siah Jamegan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market29 Jul 2030
The name of Masoud Azmoun keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Siah Jamegan say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jul 2030
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.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Alireza Ramezani 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 dugout22 Jul 2030
“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 dugout22 Jul 2030
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.
Squad22 Jul 2030
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Siah Jamegan will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market22 Jul 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alireza Ramezani signs something — a contract at Siah Jamegan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout15 Jul 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siah Jamegan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market15 Jul 2030
Saba come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Siah Jamegan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ahmad Jahanbakhsh is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muhammadbobur Karimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmad Jahanbakhsh, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces8 Jul 2030
Anger at Siah Jamegan spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market8 Jul 2030
“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.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Alireza Ramezani 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.
Squad8 Jul 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artin Rostami and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
5 new boys at the Siah Jamegan academy
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
The dugout8 Jul 2030
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.
The dugout8 Jul 2030
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Siah Jamegan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad8 Jul 2030
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Siah Jamegan would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Siah Jamegan
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Siah Jamegan is running low.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
Everything agreed with Persepolis, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Alireza Ramezani 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 dugout1 Jul 2030
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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Artin Rostami has moved up it.
The dugout1 Jul 2030
“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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Siah Jamegan would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market1 Jul 2030
The name of Masoud Azmoun keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Siah Jamegan say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jun 2030
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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Ivan Ivanovic is a better footballer than he was
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.
Transfer targets24 Jun 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout24 Jun 2030
“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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohammad Javad Tavasoli and Siah Jamegan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad24 Jun 2030
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 dugout24 Jun 2030
Mohammad Karimi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan 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.
Market24 Jun 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alireza Ramezani signs something — a contract at Siah Jamegan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Boardroom24 Jun 2030
The Siah Jamegan academy earns its keep
21 graduates, from a department now rated 4 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jun 2030
Zob Ahan arrived with $1.4M 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 terraces17 Jun 2030
Mohammad Mehdi Ahmadi has gone, the accounts have $1.4M 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.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Persepolis keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Alireza Ramezani 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.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
Siah Jamegan asked and Foolad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Jun 2030
Alireza Gholizadeh is 18, and Siah Jamegan have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad17 Jun 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Milad Torabi and Siah Jamegan agree another 3 years.
Boardroom17 Jun 2030
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Siah Jamegan $900.0K. Reza Jahanbakhsh left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces10 Jun 2030
Supporters organise against the Siah Jamegan board
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.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Market10 Jun 2030
Zob Ahan are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Siah Jamegan will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Ramezani 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.
Squad10 Jun 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ahmad Jahanbakhsh and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
A loan enquiry to Persepolis: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
A loan move for Karim Dejagah is in the works
Siah Jamegan have made the call to Foolad. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market10 Jun 2030
Milad Torabi is 20, and Siah Jamegan have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout10 Jun 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Siah Jamegan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jun 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Siah Jamegan
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market3 Jun 2030
The name of Mohammad Mehdi Ahmadi has come up in conversations Siah Jamegan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muhammadbobur Karimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
Omid Cheshmi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan 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.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
Siah Jamegan trim $1.5M from the budget
The money the manager was told he had is now money the manager used to have. $1.5M, gone from the table without a statement, and a dressing room that understands what it means.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
The window is open, and with it the only month of the year when a supporter’s hopes are limited by nothing but arithmetic. The board know the arithmetic; the supporters know the hopes.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Abdulaziz Al-Marzooqi has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 May 2030
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.
Squad27 May 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ramezani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 May 2030
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 Karimi is on it.
The dugout27 May 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Ivanovic, and the manager let it.
Market27 May 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alireza Ramezani signs something — a contract at Siah Jamegan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout27 May 2030
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mansoor Mohammad has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 May 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad20 May 2030
Alireza Ramezani 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 dugout20 May 2030
“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.
Market20 May 2030
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.
Squad20 May 2030
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Siah Jamegan will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout20 May 2030
Ivan Ivanovic knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Siah Jamegan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces13 May 2030
The mood at Siah Jamegan has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market13 May 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 May 2030
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad13 May 2030
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhammadbobur Karimov 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 dugout13 May 2030
Shahriar Vafaei has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan 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.
Market13 May 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 May 2030
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 May 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pejman Beiranvand and Siah Jamegan agree another 2 years.
Squad6 May 2030
Alireza Ramezani 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 dugout6 May 2030
“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 dugout6 May 2030
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.
Squad6 May 2030
Mahan Bandani has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.