Successful dribbles: 37. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tractor can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tractor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tractor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Ramin Cheshmi 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.
29 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
11 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Esteghlal lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
76 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saeid Saharkhizan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Esteghlal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Esteghlal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mobin Dehghan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tractor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Tractor asked and Esteghlal Khuzestan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Words at Tractor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismael Barea 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Amir Ebrahimzadeh.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tractor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Abolfazl Hosseinifar is a Tractor player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 15 actions, 6.33, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Abolfazl Hosseinifar has, at Tractor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The new man at Tractor has worked with Mehdi Khezri before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Parham Ghannad now has 50 of them across 168 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
“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 Tractor, and 0 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tractor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The new man at Tractor has worked with Mehdi Khezri before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Words at Tractor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismael Barea 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“I did not go to Esteghlal to sit and watch. I want to come back to Tractor and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 23 matches say the rest.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ahmad Khodadad, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Esteghlal can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmad Cheshmi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Esteghlal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Words at Esteghlal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anis Ayash 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.
Nobody at Esteghlal 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.
The new man at Tractor has worked with Mehdi Khezri before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Words at Tractor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hojjat Ahmadi 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.
10 combined actions and 6.79. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“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 Tractor, and 0 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ahmad Khodadad after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Esteghlal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Esteghlal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ashkan Yazdani 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anis Ayash was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Saeid Gholizadeh is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Esteghlal know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Malavan in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Esteghlal will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutAbbas Habibi knocks on the manager's door
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tractor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohammad Hossein Eslami. 2‑0 against Saipa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A 3‑1 win over Esteghlal Ahvaz, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Esteghlal will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Esteghlal have 6 straight wins of it.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
A brace, and Oston O'runov takes the afternoon — 8.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oston O'runov provided it, and the 8.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abbas Habibi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Esteghlal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Up for the corner, and Danial Eiri delivers — 7.59
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Danial Eiri scored, was marked 7.59, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Saeid Gholizadeh 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ehsan Nekounam has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Esteghlal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Foolad waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Esteghlal is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Esteghlal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Saeid Gholizadeh 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.
$140.0K was the most the club would pay and Persepolis were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saman Nekounam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Saeid Gholizadeh is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Esteghlal, another week without a signature from Saman Nekounam.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Esteghlal have lost him in all but the paperwork.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Esteghlal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Saeid Gholizadeh 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.
$320.0K was the most the club would pay and Foolad were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
In brief
SquadWords at Esteghlal training over how hard people work
90 minutes played. Mohammad Hossein Eslami found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Saba went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 7.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The phone has started ringing about Morteza Mohammadi again, and this time the name on the line is Padideh. Tractor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Mohammad Hossein Eslami 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.
“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 Tractor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tractor and Persepolis have settled on $280.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tractor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The name of Hossein Pouraliganji has come up in conversations Tractor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Mohammad Hossein Eslami 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Padideh have kept their man, and Tractor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Hojjat 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.
“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 Tractor, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Esteghlal will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Esteghlal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Esteghlal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Esteghlal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saman Nekounam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at Esteghlal has worked with Mehdi Rezaeian before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Something was said to Saman Nekounam and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Esteghlal can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Foolad waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Esteghlal is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ehsan Nekounam has just signed for Esteghlal, and for once the answer mattered.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Shahriar Pouraliganji has agreed terms with Sepahan for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Saeid Gholizadeh 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.
Esteghlal asked and Padideh said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The new man at Esteghlal has worked with Mehdi Rezaeian before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Squad25 Jun 2035
Words at Esteghlal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abbas Habibi 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Saba had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Zare will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tractor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Tractor have paid $930.0K for Guy Refaelov, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The offer went to Persepolis this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$220.0K on the table at Siah Jamegan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Mohammad Hossein Eslami 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.
Tractor offered $290.0K; Foolad said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tractor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tractor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mohammad Hossein Eslami 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Tractor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hossein Pouraliganji signs something — a contract at Tractor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
24 appearances at Saba and the goals have stopped going in. Tractor lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ehsan Nekounam trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Mohammad Hossein Eslami 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.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Words at Tractor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismael Barea 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Tractor, another week without a signature from Mobin Dehghan.
Nobody at Tractor 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hossein Pouraliganji signs something — a contract at Tractor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tractor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Tractor know it.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Mohammad Gandomi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Tractor have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hojjat Ahmadi. 2‑0 against Rah Ahan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tractor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Ramin Cheshmi obliged against Sepahan. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Tractor.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.72 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 6, 28 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ehsan Nekounam
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tractor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Mohammad Hossein Eslami 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ismael Barea trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Gostaresh Foulad in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tractor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 84 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 33, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ehsan Nekounam is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Tractor, another week without a signature from Luka Lukanić.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tractor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tractor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ehsan Nekounam trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Tractor 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Esteghlal Ahvaz in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shukron Yo'ldoshev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tractor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Allahyar Sayyadmanesh 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.
Marked 7.97. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
The offer from Gostaresh Foulad for Aria Yousefi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tractor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal with Malavan is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
$450.0K was the most the club would pay and Foolad were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Tractor asked and Persepolis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Sepahan had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sepahan can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Siah Jamegan is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The offer went to Esteghlal this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Abbas Habibi has agreed terms with Padideh for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Sepahan offered $36.0K; Malavan said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Add another name to the list: Esteghlal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ramin Azizi. The answer from Sepahan has not changed — yet.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tractor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Tractor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Sepahan; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Tractor will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Erfan Yousefzadeh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tractor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mohammad Hossein Eslami 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.
Tractor offered $68.0K; Persepolis said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sepahan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ehsan Gholizadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2034
Omid Hajsafi 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 dugout29 May 2034
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ehsan Gholizadeh signs something — a contract at Sepahan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.