Marked for Omid Rezaeian
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
8 matches without a win for Saba
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Saba are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Saba
Mohammad 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Saba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khiry Shelton 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Saba
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Saba can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“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 Saba, and 11 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Saba told Hossein Vafaei something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Saba's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Saba has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Saba
Mohammad 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karim Rezaeian, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Saba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reza 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Khiry Shelton, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Naft Tehran will make the call about Kaveh Jahanbakhsh this week. Saba have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Reza 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Masoud Beiranvand. 2‑0 against Saipa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.87 on the card, and the Saba support went home talking about one name.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Omid Rezaeian knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Omid Rezaeian trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Karim Rezaeian 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Masoud Beiranvand has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Market10 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Majid Pouraliganji has his answer from Saba; what he does with it is the next window’s story.