The words a physio says slowly. 95 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Persepolis can pretend not to have heard.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Saeid Nekounam 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Dániel Gera 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 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Persepolis, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 127 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persepolis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Jason Knight 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Persepolis will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
The name of Farshad Faraji has come up in conversations Persepolis were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
134 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persepolis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Persepolis had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Esteghlal, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $15.7M has been paid because Jason Knight is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Jason Knight was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $15.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Jason Knight 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Dániel Gera 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 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 Payam Niazmand is on it.
Omid Alishah damages knee ligaments — 137 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 137 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.
Igor Sergeev 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.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Persepolis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Gera 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.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Persepolis have no good answer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Reza Shekari has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Persepolis, and both men came out saying it was fine.
159 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persepolis 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 Persepolis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Saeid Nekounam 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Persepolis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Gera 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 Payam Niazmand is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Persepolis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Gera 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 Danial Eiri is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danial Eiri signs something — a contract at Persepolis 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 Persepolis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Dario Casella 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.
Igor Sergeev 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.
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 Payam Niazmand is on it.
In brief
The dugoutOston O'runov knocks on the manager’s door
Igor Sergeev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Dániel Gera 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 Persepolis 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Persepolis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Persepolis will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mohammad Reza Rezaei has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Persepolis that is a harder question to answer.
Rah Ahan will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Persepolis were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
A brace, and Dario Casella takes the afternoon — 8.89
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dario Casella provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Igor Sergeev 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 Dániel Gera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Mohammad Khodabandelou.
Esteghlal Ahvaz will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Persepolis were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persepolis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persepolis 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 Dario Casella was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persepolis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
63 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.
Persepolis asked and Esteghlal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$970.0K was the most the club would pay and Esteghlal 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.
Igor Sergeev 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persepolis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Igor Sergeev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Tractor paid $6.0M and Persepolis took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Omid Cheshmi has gone, the accounts have $6.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The phone has started ringing about Yaghoub Barage again, and this time the name on the line is Padideh. Persepolis are listening politely and promising nothing.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Persepolis found something the first half had given no notice of, and Padideh could not hold what they had.
“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 Persepolis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
1 for Dániel Gera, marked 7.56, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persepolis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Malavan will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Persepolis were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A brace, and Dario Casella takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dario Casella provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
8.60. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persepolis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
A brace, and Omid Cheshmi takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Omid Cheshmi provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Saeid Nekounam and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Dániel Gera 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Omid Cheshmi 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 8.42 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Dániel Gera 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persepolis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hossein Kanaani, and the manager let it.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Oston O'runov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Persepolis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Gera 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.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
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.” Sardar Shojaei, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Persepolis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Persepolis heard it as anything else.
Igor Sergeev 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dario Casella. 2‑0 against Rah Ahan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Persepolis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Gera 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persepolis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Esteghlal Ahvaz spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
34 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Omid Cheshmi 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.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Gera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Dario Casella
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Igor Sergeev
8 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.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
A brace, and Oston O'runov takes the afternoon — 8.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oston O'runov provided it, and the 8.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.35 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
6 goals in one match, Oston O'runov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Persepolis and Saipa.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oston O'runov. 4‑2 against Saipa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persepolis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Tractor next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
7 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Persepolis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Omid Cheshmi 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 Dániel Gera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Omid Cheshmi at his very best
Player ratingsOston O'runov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
17 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
5 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Gera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
16 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 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.
6 goals in one match, Saeid Nekounam on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Persepolis and Zob Ahan.
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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Omid Cheshmi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Persepolis training over how hard people work
The offer from Padideh for Yaghoub Barage 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 22 gone
That is the business done at Persepolis until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Saeid Nekounam 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohammad Mehdi Mohebi. 2‑1 against Malavan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Gera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Sepahan the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Persepolis will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
A brace, and Dario Casella takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dario Casella provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The name of Yaghoub Barage has come up in conversations Persepolis were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persepolis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.34. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Gera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 2, 60 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer from Padideh for Dániel Gera 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Amir Mohammad Razzaghinia is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Gera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Persepolis 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dario Casella is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 31 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Igor Sergeev 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.
Add another name to the list: Malavan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alireza Enayatzadeh. The answer from Persepolis has not changed — yet.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mohammad Shojaei 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Hossein Taremi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Masoud Vafaei 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Gera 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 Soheil Sahraei is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Persepolis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: Esteghlal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mojtaba Fakhrian. The answer from Persepolis has not changed — yet.
Tractor paid $220.0K and Persepolis took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Gera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persepolis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persepolis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 2, 60 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Persepolis asked and Malavan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saeid Nekounam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ehsan Yazdani was one of the reasons people came, and $9.2M does not replace that by itself.
$3.6M was the most the club would pay and Sepahan 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.
Persepolis asked and Rah Ahan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Omid Cheshmi 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 Khuzestan pay $360.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Omid Cheshmi wants continental football; whether Persepolis can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Ehsan 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 Dániel Gera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persepolis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persepolis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Dániel Gera 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 Persepolis, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Kanaani signs something — a contract at Persepolis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Persepolis that is a harder question to answer.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persepolis 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 Persepolis, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persepolis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Gera 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 Payam Niazmand is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persepolis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
11 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.
Ehsan 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Dániel Gera 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.
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 Reza Shekari.
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 Ehsan Yazdani is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sardar Shojaei after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Persepolis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
A brace, and Omid Cheshmi takes the afternoon — 8.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Omid Cheshmi provided it, and the 8.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persepolis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ehsan Yazdani 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.
12 goals and a season average of 7.20 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Dániel Gera 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Persepolis 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 8.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persepolis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Esteghlal Ahvaz made Persepolis work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Persepolis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Gera 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.