Marked for Ehsan Hosseini
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Mar 2027
25 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad22 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alireza Haghighi, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Ehsan Mohammadi 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
Hossein Saki has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Naft Tehran will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market22 Mar 2027
The name of Shahab Zahedi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Naft Tehran say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2026
9 matches without a win for Naft Tehran
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Naft Tehran are no longer polite ones.
Match21 Nov 2026
The goals have deserted Naft Tehran
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Naft Tehran can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Amir Abedzadeh 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mostafa Ahmadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match21 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Ashkan Alijani
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Shahab Zahedi is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Naft Tehran are still strangers to each other
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Amir Abedzadeh 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Sepahan next, and one man in the Naft Tehran dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Ehsan Hosseini knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Naft Tehran, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Next up at home: Sepahan, who go into it in position 2. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager comes out for Hossein Saki
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Hossein Saki has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Naft Tehran's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Naft Tehran has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
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.
Match7 Nov 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Mostafa Ahmadi 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ehsan Hosseini is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kaveh Khodadad has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Ahmad Savari gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout9 Nov 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.