52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Esteghlal Khuzestan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ehsan Gholizadeh did not need any: 8.54, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Esteghlal Khuzestan and Tractor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Esteghlal Khuzestan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Andijon is saying, and nobody at Esteghlal Khuzestan is enjoying the guessing.
Majid Beiranvand 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 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. Esteghlal have kept their man, and Esteghlal Khuzestan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The new man at Esteghlal Khuzestan has worked with Majid Beiranvand before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Esteghlal Khuzestan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Esteghlal Khuzestan have gone to Malavan with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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 Mohammad Naderi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
132 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Esteghlal Khuzestan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Naft Tehran for Aram Abbasi 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.
“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 Esteghlal Khuzestan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Malavan 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.
Mohammad Sharifi 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 Mohammad Amin Hazbavi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Esteghlal Khuzestan asked and Saipa 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 name of Mohammad Reza Falahian has come up in conversations Esteghlal Khuzestan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Abdulla Al-Nuaimi has just signed for Esteghlal Khuzestan, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
28 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Esteghlal Khuzestan asked and Foolad 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mohammad Reza Mehdizadeh has his answer from Esteghlal Khuzestan; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
13 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.
Esteghlal Khuzestan have made the call to Tractor. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Ramin Azizi is in the works
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammad Amin Hazbavi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Majid Hosseini 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Esteghlal Khuzestan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohammad Sharifi signs something — a contract at Esteghlal Khuzestan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Nima Mirzazad has written the date down.
“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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohammad Ahleshakheh and Siah Jamegan agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Milad Rezaeian trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Siah Jamegan close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Add another name to the list: Malavan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hossein Hosseini. The answer from Siah Jamegan has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Foolad 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.
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 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
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Persepolis will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Siah Jamegan were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
A brace, and Ali Khodadad takes the afternoon — 8.41
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ali Khodadad provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Houman Elyasi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 18 combined actions and a mark of 7.21, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
At 23 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.
Squad13 Dec 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ashkan Rashedi 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 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.
Nobody at Esteghlal Khuzestan 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.
Sepahan next, and one man in the Esteghlal Khuzestan dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohammad Sharifi signs something — a contract at Esteghlal Khuzestan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Esteghlal Khuzestan will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
“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.
Soheil Sarkari 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Milad Rezaeian trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tractor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Amir Hossein Farhadi is living that version at Siah Jamegan, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad20 Sep 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. Gostaresh Foulad have kept their man, and Siah Jamegan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“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 14 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ramin Taremi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 113th minute. Foolad will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ehsan Gholizadeh did not need any: 7.97, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Everything was agreed with another club and then the doctor spoke. Esteghlal Khuzestan have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Zob Ahan moved on, Abolfazl Soleimani reports back to Esteghlal Khuzestan, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Mehdi Ahmadi 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 20 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.61 for the rest of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Padideh 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.
He is 22 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Ghoreishi 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.
“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 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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 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
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Siah Jamegan had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
24 games, 16 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Siah Jamegan now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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.
8 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.
“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.
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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pejman Pouraliganji and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 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.
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 Siah Jamegan that is a harder question to answer.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saman Nekounam signs something — a contract at Siah Jamegan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Daniel Pedrozo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Siah Jamegan will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Adir Córdoba 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miraziz Mahamadaliyev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Majid Aliyari 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.
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 Amin Pourali has written the date down.
Position 2, 56 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Milad Rezaeian and Siah Jamegan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Majid 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.
Squad19 Apr 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.
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.
4 goals in 26 games at Saba — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Siah Jamegan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Falah Daram trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 2 and 56 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Majid 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Siah Jamegan told Erfan Sazegari something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Saeid Vasei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Majid Aliyari 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout1 Mar 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 Shahriar Rezaeian to a room that had heard them before.
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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Ehsan Gholizadeh, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.83
A mark of 7.83 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Foolad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Majid Aliyari 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Majid Dejagah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alireza Sadipour 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout8 Feb 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 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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
6 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.
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.
“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.
The dugout11 Jan 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 1‑3 Shahriar Rezaeian left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Saba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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 1‑3 Shahriar Rezaeian left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Alireza Haghighi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammad Hossein Moradmand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Saba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mahan Sadeghi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Saba told Ehsan Gholizadeh something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.