Marked for Vouria Karimi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Nov 2031
The knee: Farjad Fayaz out for 68 days
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Siah Jamegan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market3 Nov 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.
Market3 Nov 2031
Ehsan Hosseini has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Siah Jamegan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Nov 2031
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Vouria 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.
Squad3 Nov 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Saman Hosseini and Siah Jamegan agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings3 Nov 2031
Ninety minutes of Saman Taremi at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Siah Jamegan.
Match1 Nov 2031
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Siah Jamegan had all but put away. Esteghlal Ahvaz will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Player ratings3 Nov 2031
Nobody could get near Al-Zahri
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Sep 2031
5‑2, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad15 Sep 2031
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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Saman Taremi takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market15 Sep 2031
Only the photograph left for Mehdi Nekounam
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Nekounam will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Siah Jamegan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Vahid Karimi 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 Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Sep 2031
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Siah Jamegan and Saba, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ashkan Khodadad was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces15 Sep 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 May 2031
Ali Pouraliganji damages knee ligaments — 96 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
Squad12 May 2031
Vahid 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 May 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ashkan Khodadad was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout17 Mar 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Ashkan Khodadad 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 Mar 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vouria Noorafkan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings20 Jan 2031
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Vahid 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 Jan 2031
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ashkan Khodadad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets20 Jan 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 dugout20 Jan 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ehsan Hosseini, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad20 Jan 2031
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Siah Jamegan will feel it on Saturday.
Squad20 Jan 2031
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Siah Jamegan will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Match18 Jan 2031
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Esteghlal Khuzestan will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Dec 2030
Vahid Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Ashkan Khodadad 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.
Match7 Dec 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Saman Taremi. 1‑0 against Foolad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings9 Dec 2030
Ninety minutes of Saman Taremi at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Siah Jamegan.
Player ratings9 Dec 2030
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
Saman Taremi 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 dugout9 Dec 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tohirbek Nabiyev, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jul 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Omid Pouraliganji
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siah Jamegan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Jul 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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Ashkan Khodadad 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.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
$25.0K on the table at Esteghlal Ahvaz. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Vahid Karimi has improved at 30, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 May 2030
Vahid Karimi 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 Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 May 2030
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ashkan Khodadad 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.
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
Ashkan Khodadad 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.
Squad6 May 2030
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vouria Noorafkan 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.
Squad6 May 2030
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Apr 2030
Vahid Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ashkan Khodadad 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 dugout22 Apr 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.
Market22 Apr 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Karim Torabi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rahim Alboughobaish trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom22 Apr 2030
The Siah Jamegan production line keeps running
26 graduates out of an academy now rated 4 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.