Marked for Ehsan Noorafkan
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
Pressure builds in the Saipa boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ehsan Noorafkan
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saipa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market17 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Tractor; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market17 Jul 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Saipa, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces17 Jul 2028
Saipa sell a favourite for $410.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Mani Gholami was one of the reasons people came, and $410.0K does not replace that by itself.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Saipa
Alireza 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
$9.0K on the table at Padideh. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market17 Jul 2028
Mani Gholami has left for Naft Tehran in a $410.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces10 Jul 2028
The mood at Saipa 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Ehsan Noorafkan damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
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.
Market10 Jul 2028
Naft Tehran come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Saipa did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Jul 2028
“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 Saipa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Jul 2028
The phone has started ringing about Ahmad Azmoun again, and this time the name on the line is Saba. Saipa are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sajjad Gholibeigi and Saipa agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Saipa
Mohammad Karimi 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Aref Seifi 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 dugout10 Jul 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Aref Seifi'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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2028
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Saipa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market3 Jul 2028
Majid Azmoun hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Saipa can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Saipa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The Saipa board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market3 Jul 2028
The name of Majid Azmoun has come up in conversations Saipa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Saipa
Mohammad Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Jul 2028
Padideh pay $150.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persepolis have kept their man, and Saipa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.