Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohammad Jahanbakhsh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad19 Oct 2048
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Hosseini 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 Foolad 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Foolad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Masoud Moharrami will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2048
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmad Ebrahimi 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.
9 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Foolad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Cody De Jong could not do
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Ramin Shojaei obliged against Gostaresh Foulad. 6‑3 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Foolad.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foolad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.96 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Foolad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Foolad and Gostaresh Foulad, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Siah Jamegan will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Foolad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foolad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 9.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Add another name to the list: Siah Jamegan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Cody De Jong. The answer from Foolad has not changed — yet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Foolad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foolad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sardar Gholizadeh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Add another name to the list: Gostaresh Foulad have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ehsan Hajsafi. The answer from Foolad has not changed — yet.
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad13 Jul 2048
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Hosseini 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.
In brief
SquadEhsan Taremi has become a man the manager trusts
“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 Foolad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foolad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Add another name to the list: Esteghlal Ahvaz have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Masoud Moharrami. The answer from Foolad has not changed — yet.
In brief
SquadEhsan Hajsafi falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadReza Taremi has become a man the manager trusts
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foolad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Add another name to the list: Tractor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Askhat Nurgaliev. The answer from Foolad has not changed — yet.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohammad Ebrahimi and Foolad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad22 Jun 2048
Ali Hosseini 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.
Nobody at Foolad 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foolad 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 Foolad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Add another name to the list: Esteghlal Khuzestan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ehsan Hajsafi. The answer from Foolad has not changed — yet.
43 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad15 Jun 2048
Ehsan 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.
In brief
SquadEhsan Taremi has become a man the manager trusts
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foolad 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 Foolad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
In brief
SquadEhsan Taremi has become a man the manager trusts
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foolad 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 Foolad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foolad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foolad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad 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 Foolad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Mar 2048
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Hosseini 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.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 101th minute. Saipa will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foolad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Mar 2048
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Hosseini 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.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foolad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Foolad are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Feb 2048
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Hosseini 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 Foolad 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.
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The name of Cody De Jong has come up in conversations Foolad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foolad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Foolad and Esteghlal Khuzestan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Tractor for Cody De Jong 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The name of Askhat Nurgaliev has come up in conversations Foolad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sardar Gholizadeh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Foolad and Saba in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 6.78 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 5 saves does not settle it either way.
Squad13 Jan 2048
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ehsan Hajsafi 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.
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foolad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Dec 2047
Ali Hosseini 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.
126 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Masoud Cheshmi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Nov 2047
Ehsan 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cody De Jong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cody De Jong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.72 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Involvement in 4 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.99 beside his name.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammad Amin Hosseini and Foolad agree another 2 years.
In brief
MatchEhsan Hajsafi among the goals in a wild afternoon
Ehsan Taremi had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Siah Jamegan were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The name of Askhat Nurgaliev has come up in conversations Foolad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Gostaresh Foulad will make the call about Ehsan Taremi this week. Foolad have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Saeid Shojaei is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ahmad Ebrahimi 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.
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings12 Aug 2047
Ahmad Ebrahimi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Foolad will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad29 Jul 2047
Words at Foolad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Askhat Nurgaliev 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 Foolad 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.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohammad Jahanbakhsh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ehsan Hajsafi is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foolad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foolad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foolad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Askhat Nurgaliev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad 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.” Foolad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Cody De Jong obliged against Persepolis. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Foolad.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Foolad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 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.
The award goes to Askhat Nurgaliev, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad4 Mar 2047
Fahad Khalfan 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.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Ehsan Taremi
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ehsan Hajsafi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Gostaresh Foulad will make the call about Ehsan Taremi this week. Foolad have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
Squad21 Jan 2047
Fahad Khalfan 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.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foolad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ehsan Hajsafi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foolad the goodbyes have quietly begun.