110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gostaresh Foulad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Vicenza is saying, and nobody at Gostaresh Foulad is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hossein Mohammadi 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vahid Vafaei after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
$2.1M on the table at Persepolis. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The chase for Mohammad Pouraliganji ended with $1.7M changing hands and Padideh out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$510.0K was the most the club would pay and Esteghlal 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Saipa 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.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.7M for Mohammad Pouraliganji, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pejman Ebrahimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gostaresh Foulad will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pejman Ebrahimi 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.
Masoud Hajsafi 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gostaresh Foulad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Ehsan Torabi’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gostaresh Foulad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Pejman Ebrahimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Vouria Azmoun 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. Gostaresh Foulad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hossein Mohammadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 56 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 Gostaresh Foulad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Gostaresh Foulad 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Milad Taremi. 1‑0 against Naft Tehran, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The offer from Tractor for Pejman Ebrahimi 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gostaresh Foulad have done the hard part with Utrecht, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Gostaresh Foulad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Southampton, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hossein Mohammadi 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.
The offer from Esteghlal for Sardar Noorafkan 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gostaresh Foulad can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Sardar Noorafkan 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. Pejman Ebrahimi 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.
Gostaresh Foulad 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.
1‑5 against Siah Jamegan, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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 goals in one match, Sardar Noorafkan on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Gostaresh Foulad and Siah Jamegan.
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 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, 6.44, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout30 Nov 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 1‑5 defeat, delivered by Vahid Vafaei to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Position 8, 23 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout9 Nov 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 0‑2 Vahid Vafaei left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gostaresh Foulad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Hossein Mohammadi 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.
It needed Pejman Ebrahimi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Saipa, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Vahid Vafaei chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Tractor.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Pejman 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ashkan Rezaeian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 had been thinking. Pejman Ebrahimi 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.
Marked 8.31 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout5 Oct 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 1‑2 Vahid Vafaei left the room before anybody could ask which.
Hossein Mohammadi 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Pejman Ebrahimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gostaresh Foulad asked and Haladas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Esteghlal left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout24 Aug 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 0‑1 Vahid Vafaei left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Pejman Ebrahimi was the best thing in any of them.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Gostaresh Foulad asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ashkan Rezaeian 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.
Gostaresh Foulad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AZ, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Pejman Ebrahimi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monza have kept their man, and Gostaresh Foulad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.