Marked for Karim Karimi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
8 matches without a win for Siah Jamegan
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Siah Jamegan are no longer polite ones.
Match12 Sep 2026
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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Siah Jamegan ran out of time with Zob Ahan. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morteza Taremi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match12 Sep 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Match2 Sep 2026
0‑2 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑3 to Malavan, 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match5 Sep 2026
7 matches without a win for Siah Jamegan
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Siah Jamegan are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Siah Jamegan and Zob Ahan have settled on $750.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Siah Jamegan close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Morteza Taremi 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
6 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match29 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$700.0K on the table at Zob Ahan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Siah Jamegan have done the hard part with Gostaresh Foulad, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match29 Aug 2026
1‑3 to Sepahan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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 dugout31 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Arash Akbarzadeh 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Ali Karimi falls out with a teammate over standards
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Squad
No place for Soheil Sarkari in the new shape
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match8 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Siah Jamegan
A 0‑3 beating by Esteghlal was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Foolad; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market10 Aug 2026
Tractor 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Foolad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Siah Jamegan have gone to Rah Ahan 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Saeid Vafaei commits to Siah Jamegan for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Karim Karimi 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 dugout10 Aug 2026
Karim Karimi gets it from the manager
“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
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
6 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Sporting Cristal wanted more than $560.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Siah Jamegan
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Morteza Taremi 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Siah Jamegan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ali Ebrahimi 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.