Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Malavan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Malavan had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at CSKA Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milad Kor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Malavan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 The request is on a desk at Malavan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
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 phone has started ringing about Mohammad Reza Khosravi again, and this time the name on the line is Persepolis. Malavan are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Hawsawi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milad Kor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
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.
Nobody at Malavan 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jafar Salmani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Foolad go through and Malavan go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Malavan and Gostaresh Foulad have settled on $770.0K. 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.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Malavan are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Malavan close the window on a squad of their own making
23 in and 11 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.
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.
In brief
SquadMilad Kor falls out with a teammate over standards
23 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.
The offer from Saipa for Behnam Barzay 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.
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.
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.
Malavan asked and Hapoel Beer Sheva said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Malavan will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Reza Afsordeh 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.
7 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 words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Malavan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$42.0K settles it between the clubs for Bahman Salari
Saipa have accepted the money. What Malavan do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The phone has started ringing about Behnam Barzay again, and this time the name on the line is Saipa. Malavan are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Beer Sheva have kept their man, and Malavan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhannad Al-Shanqiti 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.
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 Farzad Taiebipour is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sajjad Ashouri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Malavan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Mohammad Papi
Ghaem Eslamikhah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhannad Al-Shanqiti 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.
6 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.
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 Zargham Saadavi is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Malavan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Muhannad Al-Shanqiti 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.
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 Farzad Taiebipour is on it.
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.
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 went out to keep goal every week and came back with 3 games and 3 of them shut out. Somebody at Malavan argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
Nobody at Malavan 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 years old, every age group at this club behind him, and a borrowed player of much the same standard in front of him every Saturday. The parents in the stand have noticed, and so has every kid below him.
Muhannad Al-Shanqiti 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Saeid Hajsafi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
3 appearances, 3 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Malavan will have this month.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Malavan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Jafar Salmani 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Malavan and Siah Jamegan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
12 combined actions and 7.43. 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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Farzad Taiebipour: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Malavan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Minute 95, against Persepolis, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
21 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.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
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 7.47 for the rest of it.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ehsan Ebrahimi 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 words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Malavan has been clear about where Abouazar Safarzadeh stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.