Marked for Ehsan Hajsafi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Siah Jamegan had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Utrecht, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Ashkan Khodadad 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
The medical room confirms 52 days on the sidelines for Karim Noorafkan, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmad Shojaei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jun 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siah Jamegan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market21 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Farjad Fayaz joins from Malavan in a deal worth $1.3M. Now comes the harder part.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
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Squad21 Jun 2027
Ashkan Khodadad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The offer went to Sepahan 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ahmad Shojaei is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
The town asked, and Siah Jamegan paid $1.3M
Farjad Fayaz was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.3M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ali Pouraliganji and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Vahid Karimi
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
The knee: Karim Torabi out for 30 days
30 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.
Squad24 May 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siah Jamegan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout24 May 2027
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Squad24 May 2027
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 May 2027
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.
Market24 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ehsan Hajsafi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
57 days out for Ahmad Moharrami after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siah Jamegan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siah Jamegan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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Squad26 Apr 2027
Vahid Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
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 dugout26 Apr 2027
Vahid 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
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Ahmad Moharrami out for 87 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siah Jamegan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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Squad29 Mar 2027
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
29 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
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Ahmad Moharrami out for 95 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siah Jamegan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Aljaž Strajnar: 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
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 Mar 2027
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market22 Mar 2027
The Saman Taremi talk will not go away
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
Squad1 Mar 2027
117 days out for Ahmad Moharrami after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siah Jamegan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad1 Mar 2027
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 dugout1 Mar 2027
Vahid Karimi 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
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. Vahid Karimi has moved up it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“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.
Market1 Mar 2027
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 terraces1 Mar 2027
The Karim Torabi rumours reach the terraces
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Siah Jamegan would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
Squad1 Mar 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Siah Jamegan has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Feb 2027
14 matches without a win for Siah Jamegan
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Siah Jamegan are no longer polite ones.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Ahmad Moharrami out for 124 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siah Jamegan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match22 Feb 2027
17 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Rah Ahan left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Match2 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Siah Jamegan's wait for a win
7 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Saman Taremi beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Siah Jamegan 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Ehsan Hajsafi scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Zob Ahan, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“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
Squad14 Dec 2026
30 days out for Pejman Nekounam after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siah Jamegan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match12 Dec 2026
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
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.
Match12 Dec 2026
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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rahim Alboughobaish, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ehsan Hosseini and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Mehdi Noorafkan to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Pejman Nekounam out for 45 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siah Jamegan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ashkan Khodadad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Ali Cheshmi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Milad Rezaeian commits to Siah Jamegan for another 1 years.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Ali Sheikhan 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.70, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Vahid Karimi beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
At 16 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad2 Nov 2026
45 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Reza Beiranvand has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Saman Taremi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Saman Taremi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Siah Jamegan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Milad Rezaeian, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Catania keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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 targets14 Sep 2026
Siah Jamegan asked and Noah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mehdi Noorafkan after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Reza Beiranvand dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Saba will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
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
Siah Jamegan offered $1.3M; Persepolis said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sporting CP keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ashkan Khodadad 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tractor have kept their man, and Siah Jamegan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Catania have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The unthinkable, invoiced: Hossein Cheshmi sold
Padideh arrived with $650.0K 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Hossein Cheshmi has gone, the accounts have $650.0K 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ahmad Cheshmi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$150.0K was the most the club would pay and Malavan were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alireza Nekounam, and the manager let it.