Marked for Ehsan Azmoun
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Rah Ahan
Omid Cheshmi 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Rah Ahan offered $49.0K; Esteghlal Khuzestan said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Miguel Araujo 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persepolis have kept their man, and Rah Ahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Jul 2027
Every point is an argument now for Rah Ahan
Position 16 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Mohammad Taremi out for 109 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rah Ahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ramin Rezaeian has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Crisis meeting at Rah Ahan
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
$2.1M on the table at Paradou. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market5 Jul 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Rah Ahan can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
No thanks: Emre Ünüvar rejects the move
Rah Ahan had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ajax, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Majid Taremi and Rah Ahan agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Omid Cheshmi 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Jun 2027
Rah Ahan sink to position 16
9 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ramin Rezaeian has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market7 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Crisis meeting at Rah Ahan
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tractor have kept their man, and Rah Ahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Omid Cheshmi 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
45 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
$110.0K on the table at Sepahan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout31 May 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Rah Ahan
Omid Cheshmi 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.
Squad31 May 2027
A row about effort at Rah Ahan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Araujo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market31 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hossein Moharrami signs something — a contract at Rah Ahan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout31 May 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rah Ahan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad31 May 2027
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Rah Ahan and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Apr 2027
30 days out for Hossein Ghoddos after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rah Ahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Rah Ahan
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rah Ahan is running low.
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Dario Casella 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
Miguel Araujo 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.
Market26 Apr 2027
The Omid Cheshmi story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Omid Cheshmi signs something — a contract at Rah Ahan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
Rah Ahan say no — this time
The offer from Esteghlal Ahvaz for Masoud Vafaei 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market24 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Persepolis have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Omid Cheshmi. The answer from Rah Ahan has not changed — yet.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Rah Ahan's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rah Ahan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Rah Ahan
Majid Taremi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Masoud Vafaei 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Malavan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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 Rezaeian to a room that had heard them before.