The Saba Sentinel
Squad2 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mohammad Yazdani
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saba lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market2 Aug 2027
Amir Azmoun asks to leave Saba
“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.
Market2 Aug 2027
Sepahan come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Saba did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Ahmad Pouraliganji keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Saba may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Sardar Noorafkan signs on for the long haul
Saba moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Sardar Noorafkan, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Graduation day at Saba
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Ehsan Taremi 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Gen Kato signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gen Kato and Saba agree another 4 years.
Market2 Aug 2027
One of our own: Ramin Moharrami joins the Saba first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ramin Moharrami is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
- Market Alireza Jahanbakhsh steps up from the Saba academy
- Boardroom Saba spend it where nobody looks