27 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.
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.
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.
“I watch every Siah Jamegan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Saipa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutMilad Rezaeian asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Mohammad Ghoreishi 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hossein Hosseini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
41 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Dejagah 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.
Majid Yazdani 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.
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.
“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.
Mohammad Hossein Zavari 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Ali Dejagah 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.
“I did not go to Esteghlal Khuzestan to sit and watch. I want to come back to Siah Jamegan and fight for my place.” 12 appearances in 47 matches say the rest.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ali Khodadad signs something — a contract at Siah Jamegan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Mohammad Hossein Zavari 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.
“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 4 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erfan Darvishaali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Siah Jamegan, another week without a signature from Mohammad Ghoreishi.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adir Córdoba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Siah Jamegan the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siah Jamegan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Ali Dejagah 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.
Shahriar Ebrahimi 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Dejagah 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.
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.
“I did not go to Saipa to sit and watch. I want to come back to Siah Jamegan and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 8 matches say the rest.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Ramin Azizi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ramin Azizi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Siah Jamegan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Dejagah 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.
Majid Yazdani 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.
Something was said to Ramin Azizi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hossein Hosseini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Mohammad Hossein Zavari 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.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Mohammad Ghoreishi.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ramin Taremi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Ramin Azizi, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Siah Jamegan would like this to lead.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Ramin Azizi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Ali Dejagah 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.
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.
“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 12 appearances in 38 say he has earned the hearing.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Erfan Darvishaali has come out of that comparison in the side, and Siah Jamegan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ramin Taremi kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Siah Jamegan has been clear about where Miraziz Mahamadaliyev stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
“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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Dejagah 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.
Soheil Sarkari 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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mehdi Azmoun has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Siah Jamegan.
Squad21 Feb 2028
7 new faces, and Siah Jamegan are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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 offer from Malavan for Hossein Hosseini 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Saipa have kept their man, and Siah Jamegan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Siah Jamegan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
Mohammad Hossein Zavari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Dejagah 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.
Siah Jamegan asked and Esteghlal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Houman Elyasi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Siah Jamegan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Add another name to the list: Saba have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hossein Hosseini. The answer from Siah Jamegan has not changed — yet.
Match8 Jan 2028
After 8 games, Siah Jamegan finally taste it again
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Sepahan; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Dejagah 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zob Ahan have kept their man, and Siah Jamegan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I watch every Siah Jamegan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Esteghlal Khuzestan runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Hossein Taremi
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.
“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.
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Ali 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.
Siah Jamegan asked and Esteghlal Khuzestan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Jan 2028
Ali Dejagah is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Siah Jamegan have made the call to Sepahan. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Siah Jamegan and Saipa, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Mehdi Azmoun 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Houman Elyasi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Majid Yazdani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Siah Jamegan know it.
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Ali 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.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ramin Taremi after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Saman Nekounam's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Majid Yazdani 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.91, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“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 5 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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 0‑1 Ramin Taremi left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siah Jamegan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Ali 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ramin Taremi to a room that had heard them before.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Adib Zarei 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.
A conversation is coming this week. Siah Jamegan will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ali 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corum FK have kept their man, and Siah Jamegan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Shahriar Ebrahimi 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.
0‑1 to Foolad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ramin Taremi to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
Add another name to the list: Esteghlal Ahvaz have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mehdi Azmoun. The answer from Siah Jamegan has not changed — yet.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali 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.
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.
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.
“I watch every Siah Jamegan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Esteghlal Khuzestan runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
“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 phone has started ringing about Shahriar Taremi again, and this time the name on the line is Saipa. Siah Jamegan are listening politely and promising nothing.
Siah Jamegan asked and Gostaresh Foulad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Majid Yazdani 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Siah Jamegan than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The offer from Tractor for Ali Khodadad 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ehsan Gholizadeh and Siah Jamegan agree another 5 years.
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.
Majid Yazdani 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.
Siah Jamegan have made the call to Zob Ahan. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutHossein Taremi asks for a word with the manager
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Siah Jamegan know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Majid Dejagah 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.
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.
Majid Dejagah 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.
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 shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
A side in position 10 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.