74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Malavan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Malavan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
0‑3 to Foolad, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The deal with Al Ain 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 chase for Ashkan Azmoun ended with $470.0K changing hands and Padideh out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Ghaem Eslamikhah 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Malavan spend $470.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $470.0K for Ashkan Azmoun, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Jafar Salmani 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 17 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padideh can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Supporters turn on the $470.0K sale of Ashkan Azmoun
He is going to Malavan, the club has $470.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Padideh have done the hard part with Malavan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mehdi Hajsafi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Malavan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Malavan can pretend not to have heard.
4 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.
Ghaem Eslamikhah 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jafar Salmani 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.
Ghaem Eslamikhah 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.
6 goals in one match, Abouazar Safarzadeh on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Malavan and Rah Ahan.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jafar Salmani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Persepolis.
Beaten 4 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Persepolis next, and one man in the Malavan dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A brace, and Mehdi Abdi takes the afternoon — 8.82
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mehdi Abdi provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Esteghlal Khuzestan left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jafar Salmani 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 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Amir Torabi to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Naft Tehran next, and one man in the Malavan dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Malavan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jafar Salmani 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.
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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hossein Sadeghi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Malavan needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Malavan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Farzad Taiebipour has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Ghaem Eslamikhah 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Younes Akbarpour and Malavan agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Saeid Karimi 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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Malavan has been clear about where Afshar Sedaghat stands, which is more than many ever get.
Everybody at Malavan saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Malavan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Malavan will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Amir Torabi kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Ghaem Eslamikhah 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jafar Salmani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Malavan, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Esteghlal in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Seyed Ali Yahyazadeh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Malavan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Malavan, and it is not being withdrawn.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Malavan close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $178.0K — a club that wants Alireza Amirkhani enough to be asked twice.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Behnam Barzay reports back to Malavan with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The offer from Padideh for Amir Savaed 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.
$170.0K on the table at Foolad. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Malavan offered $190.0K; Esteghlal 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saeid Karimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.