42 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kaku provided it, and the 8.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
At 20 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Reza Ghobeishavi 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Malavan has been clear about where Hossein Sadeghi stands, which is more than many ever get.
53 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.
6 goals in one match, Chris Bedia on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Malavan and Saba.
Squad15 Feb 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Emirates Club have kept their man, and Malavan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Chances created: 12. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
60 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Shabab have kept their man, and Malavan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Mohammad Papi 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
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 0‑1 Amir Torabi left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saeid Karimi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
“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.
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 Younes Akbarpour is on it.
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Rah Ahan 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.
In brief
The dugoutMohammad Papi knocks on the manager’s door
1‑4 to Zob Ahan, 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saeid Karimi 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 did not go to Padideh to sit and watch. I want to come back to Malavan and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout2 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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Amir Torabi to a room that had heard them before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Abbas Habibi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $233.6K — a club that wants Ali Eslami enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Malavan 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 offer went to Zob Ahan 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.
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.
A 2‑0 win over Esteghlal Ahvaz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Add another name to the list: Sepahan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alireza Ramezani. The answer from Malavan has not changed — yet.
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.