Marked for Sardar Moharrami
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jun 2029
27 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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Siah Jamegan 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.
Market4 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Khodadad was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Esteghlal have kept their man, and Siah Jamegan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Iliya Imani 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.
Market4 Jun 2029
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Siah Jamegan has been clear about where Alireza Sadipour stands, which is more than many ever get.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The Siah Jamegan board find $1.8M for the manager
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $1.8M well is entirely his problem now.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amir Hossein Farhadi, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 May 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Khodadad was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 May 2029
Shahriar Ebrahimi 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 dugout14 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saman Nekounam, and the manager let it.
Loan watch14 May 2029
“I did not go to Tractor to sit and watch. I want to come back to Siah Jamegan and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
The dugout14 May 2029
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 Amir Hossein Farhadi is on it.
Market14 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pejman Pouraliganji’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 May 2029
Shahin Shojaei asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout14 May 2029
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 Majd Aghbaria has written the date down.
Squad14 May 2029
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 May 2029
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tractor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad14 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 May 2029
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 dugout14 May 2029
Erfan Sazegari 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 Erfan Sazegari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Loan watch14 May 2029
“I am playing every week here and I feel like a footballer again.” 30 appearances and 5 goals on loan, and a decision waiting in the summer.
Squad14 May 2029
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 Tractor that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siah Jamegan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Dejagah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Abolfazl Koohi 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.
Loan watch16 Apr 2029
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Siah Jamegan, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“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 dugout16 Apr 2029
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 Amir Hossein Farhadi is on it.
Market16 Apr 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pejman Pouraliganji’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“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 dugout16 Apr 2029
Aref Rostami 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
Squad9 Apr 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tractor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Tractor
Allahyar Sayyadmanesh 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 dugout9 Apr 2029
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 dugout9 Apr 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tractor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch9 Apr 2029
8 shut-outs in 26 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Adib Zarei has been having a lot of them.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erfan Ghahremani, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Apr 2029
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tractor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tractor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Tractor
Milad Zakipour 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 Apr 2029
“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 dugout2 Apr 2029
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 Sadegh Moharrami is on it.
Squad2 Apr 2029
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.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tractor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad2 Apr 2029
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. Mani Sharifnejad has moved up it.
Market2 Apr 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Igor Postonjski signs something — a contract at Tractor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Tractor production line keeps running
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Match
Nothing left to play for but pride at Tractor
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Jan 2029
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tractor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market29 Jan 2029
“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.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
The deal with Siah Jamegan 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 Jan 2029
A move Mehdi Khoshbakht would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mehdi Khoshbakht is living that version at Tractor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Tractor
Milad Zakipour and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Tractor asked and Malavan 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 dugout29 Jan 2029
“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.
Match27 Jan 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Allahyar Sayyadmanesh. 1‑0 against Saipa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Mehdi Shiri is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.