Position 6 on 51 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ramin Azizi did not need any: 8.17, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Pablo Lago 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Naderi 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.
He is 21 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.
Three points for Esteghlal Khuzestan, 2‑0 the final word against Saba in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Pablo Lago was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Esteghlal Khuzestan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Najd Ajroud has agreed terms with Foolad for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Mohammad Sharifi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Amin Hazbavi 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
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