Marked for Mohammad Karimi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match26 Sep 2026
0‑3 to Zob Ahan, 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Saman Torabi breaks a bone — 14 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Reza Vafaei is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Fabio Conti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Fabio Conti 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
Hossein Taremi is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Siah Jamegan has been clear about where Hossein Taremi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
22 days out for Saman Torabi 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Mohammad Karimi takes the afternoon — 7.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohammad Karimi provided it, and the 7.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Masoud Moharrami and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 3‑2 win over Saba, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
At 23 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Reza Rezaeian was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Omid Beiranvand could afford to be generous.
Market21 Sep 2026
Siah Jamegan have let the market know Mohammad Karimi can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Saman Torabi breaks a bone — 38 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 5 in, 3 out at Siah Jamegan
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Siah Jamegan will try again when the window opens; Sepahan may not be selling by then.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Hossein Dejagah 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Experience through the door at Siah Jamegan
Mostafa Ahmadi arrives at 38 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Vouria Khodadad keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Siah Jamegan say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Tractor for Mohammad Azmoun 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Siah Jamegan and Sepahan have settled on $43.0K. 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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $45.0K — a club that wants Seyed Pouria Rafiei enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Gostaresh Foulad 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad31 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Foolad wanted more than $87.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Match29 Aug 2026
1‑2 to Sepahan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
$1.1M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑3 against Foolad, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mehdi Jahanbakhsh had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $1.1M sale of Masoud Shojaei
He is going to Tractor, the club has $1.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $90.0K — a club that wants Ali Hassani enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Persepolis keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The dugout24 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.