It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zob Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rahman Jafari, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Zob Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramin 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Allahyar Sayyadmanesh is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at Zob Ahan 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Amir Hossein Jeddi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Zob Ahan needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zob Ahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Parsa Jafari 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Zob Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramin 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.
Nobody at Zob Ahan 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arash Ghaderi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Foolad in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Hadi Baghban may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Questions about Parsa Jafari on the training pitch
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.
7.94, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Parsa Jafari 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.
“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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Ramin 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Behnam Teymourian and Zob Ahan agree another 3 years.
9 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Arash Ghaderi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Ahmed Al-Julaydan 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Zob Ahan have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Ramin 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.
At 33, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“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 Zob Ahan will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zob Ahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Zob Ahan have gone to Lech 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.
The shirt still fits. Aref Gholami is back at Zob Ahan, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Parsa Jafari 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.
Esteghlal Khuzestan wanted more than $270.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The terraces24 Jul 2028
Zob Ahan spend $1.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.1M for Aref Gholami, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Ramin 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Zob Ahan will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zob Ahan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The offer from Foolad for Mohammad Javad Mohammadi 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.
Zob Ahan have gone to Padideh 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $300.4K — a club that wants Alireza Enayatzadeh enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Tractor 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.
$280.0K was the most the club would pay and Persepolis were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Ramin 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.
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.
$1.2M 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alireza Jahanbakhsh had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have shaken hands with Persepolis; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
He is going to Zob Ahan, the club has $1.2M 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padideh can pretend not to have heard.
The name of Vahid Ebrahimi has come up in conversations Padideh were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Jahanbakhsh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everything agreed with Siah Jamegan, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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 Zob Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Padideh did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.2M for Ramin Yazdani, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $94.6K — a club that wants Omar Badarneh enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Tractor 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.
Zob Ahan offered $270.0K; 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ramin Yazdani from Padideh for $1.2M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Hasan Jafari damages knee ligaments — 135 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 135 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ramin 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Homaeifard 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 manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Amir Abedzadeh is on 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 Naft Tehran, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Padideh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Padideh will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padideh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Ahmed Al-Obaidli has written the date down.
Hasan Jafari damages knee ligaments — 142 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 142 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.
The terraces22 May 2028
The mood at Naft Tehran has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Naft Tehran will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Naft Tehran is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ashkan Pouraliganji was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Padideh would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padideh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Padideh have no good answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padideh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Morteza Khodadad 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Jahanbakhsh 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padideh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ashkan Pouraliganji may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Position 6, 52 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Naft Tehran will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ramin 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.
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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Naft Tehran will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ramin 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.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Hossein Beiranvand is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Amir Abedzadeh is on it.
Morteza Khodadad 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ashkan Pouraliganji 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padideh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ashkan Pouraliganji may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Position 6, 52 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Padideh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Yousef Vakia’s negotiating for him
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.
Amir Abedzadeh 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.
At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chigozie Ihejiofor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Naft Tehran know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
A point taken on 90 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.71, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Hossein Beiranvand will call it something else in private.
In brief
The dugoutRamin Yazdani is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Homaeifard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Kamal Kamyabinia'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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Pejman Pouraliganji chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
21 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Persepolis were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ramin 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abubakir Mo'ydinov. 1‑0 against Persepolis, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chigozie Ihejiofor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Naft Tehran has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces3 Jan 2028
The mood at Naft Tehran has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Naft Tehran, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ramin 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Naft Tehran 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.
15 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.
Ramin 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pejman Pouraliganji after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Naft Tehran, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
14 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.
Amir Abedzadeh 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.
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 dugout20 Dec 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 0‑3 Pejman Pouraliganji left the room before anybody could ask which.
Position 16 and 5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chigozie Ihejiofor 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 manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Amir Abedzadeh is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mahyar Zahmatkesh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Naft Tehran has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Ramin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahyar Zahmatkesh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Nov 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Pejman Pouraliganji to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Kamal Kamyabinia'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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammad Hossein Moradmand, and the manager let it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahyar Zahmatkesh 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.
Minute 93, against Tractor, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The new man at Naft Tehran has worked with Alireza Homaeifard before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Pejman Dejagah is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sepahan have kept their man, and Naft Tehran go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahyar Zahmatkesh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at Naft Tehran has worked with Alireza Homaeifard before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Emirates Club is saying, and nobody at Naft Tehran is enjoying the guessing.
Ramin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persepolis have kept their man, and Naft Tehran go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahyar Zahmatkesh 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahyar Zahmatkesh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mohammad Mohammadi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Karim Shojaei has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Morteza Azmoun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ramin Rezaeian has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Position 15 and 16 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahyar Zahmatkesh 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 Naft Tehran, another week without a signature from Mahyar Zahmatkesh.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Naft Tehran will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Emirates Club have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
A loan enquiry to Gostaresh Foulad: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Akbar O'ktamov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $260.0K has been paid because Abolfazl Karamollahi is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Abolfazl Karamollahi was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $260.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akbar O'ktamov 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Naft Tehran are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Padideh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Morteza Khodadad 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
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 Padideh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Padideh, another week without a signature from Yousef Vakia.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
The deal with Esteghlal 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.15, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Esteghlal have kept their man, and Padideh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Padideh will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padideh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Padideh 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padideh can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Esteghlal 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 Daneshgar 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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 Ashkan Pouraliganji was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padideh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Milad Kor 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padideh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Padideh 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.
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Ahmad Khodadad leaves Padideh the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Squad24 May 2027
Questions about Yousef Vakia on the training pitch
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Persepolis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 May 2027
Dániel Gera 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 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Persepolis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ashkan Pouraliganji 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Padideh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padideh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Hossein Kanaani 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.
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Persepolis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oston O'runov 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Esmaeil Gholizadeh is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Persepolis hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Dániel Gera 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.
Something was said to Ramin Yazdani and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yaghoub Barage is on it.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padideh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.15, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vouria Torabi is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Karim Beiranvand trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ahmad Khodadad is on it.
Words at Persepolis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oston O'runov 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.
Ramin 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.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohammad Mehdi Mohebi signs something — a contract at Persepolis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Persepolis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persepolis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Persepolis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Persepolis until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Persepolis asked and Sepahan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Persepolis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Gera 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 point taken on 85 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.
Igor Sergeev wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Igor Sergeev found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Padideh went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Persepolis can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Persepolis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tractor have kept their man, and Persepolis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Igor Sergeev. 2‑1 against Padideh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Dániel Gera 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Saba will make the call about Mohammad Hossein Sadeghi this week. Persepolis have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Padideh and Esteghlal have settled on $1.5M. 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.
Mohammad Daneshgar 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 phone has started ringing about Ramin Yazdani again, and this time the name on the line is Persepolis. Padideh are listening politely and promising nothing.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ashkan Pouraliganji is on it.
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
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Padideh man
The name of Oston O'runov has come up in conversations Persepolis were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Dániel Gera 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.
Mohammad Omri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Jan 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Ashkan Jahanbakhsh to a room that had heard them before.
Persepolis have made the call to Padideh. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Persepolis will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Padideh know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Abolfazl Zamani 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ramin 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ashkan Jahanbakhsh could afford to be generous.