Marked for Mehdi Hosseini
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Saba's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Saba has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Saba
0‑1 against Tractor, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Saba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Gabriel Menezes gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gabriel Menezes has just signed for Saba, and for once the answer mattered.
Match5 Sep 2026
Three points for Saba, 1‑0 the final word against Persepolis in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Vahid 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Saba, another week without a signature from Walter Montoya.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.54, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
$4.4M 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 terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $4.4M sale of Masoud Beiranvand
He is going to SC Freiburg, the club has $4.4M 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.
Market31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Khiry Shelton 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.