There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Mahyar Zahmatkesh 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.
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Kamali 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 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front 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 Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 0‑2 Mohammad Dejagah left the room before anybody could ask which.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Pouya Reshadi Mohammadi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Naft Tehran needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Kamali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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 1‑2 Mohammad Dejagah left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Naft Tehran, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh 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.
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ali Kamali 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Saba scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Abolfazl Zamani is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mohammad Dejagah after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Position 14 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Naft Tehran know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Half the programme played, position 14, 8 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 6.84 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Naft Tehran can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Naft Tehran dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Amir Abedzadeh 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alireza Haghighi, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Iylia 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Naft Tehran, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ali Kamali’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Naft Tehran needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Naft Tehran has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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 much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Naft Tehran told Ali Eslami something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad9 Nov 2026
9 new faces, and Naft Tehran are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Naft Tehran will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mohammad Dejagah was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Naft Tehran dressing room was either.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
0‑4 against Gostaresh Foulad, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Manuel Iylia is living that version at Naft Tehran, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Mohammad Dejagah could afford to be generous.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Abolfazl Zamani's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Naft Tehran have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Amir Abedzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
21 new faces, and Naft Tehran are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Naft Tehran will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Position 14 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
6 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Amirhossein Azizi is living that version at Naft Tehran, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.76, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Amir Abedzadeh 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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mohammad Hossein Momeni has, at Naft Tehran, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mohammad Dejagah after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He is 18, and nobody at Naft Tehran signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Naft Tehran lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑4 to Tractor, 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 run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Naft Tehran are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahyar Zahmatkesh 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.
Mohammad Amini 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.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Naft Tehran dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
$1.7M 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.
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hossein Karimi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Shahriar Moharrami 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. 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.
The offer went to Sepahan 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Naft Tehran close the window on a squad of their own making
28 in and 0 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.
Naft Tehran had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Malavan, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Akbar Safarzadeh has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
18 new faces, and Naft Tehran are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mahyar Zahmatkesh’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Naft Tehran needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gostaresh Foulad have kept their man, and Naft Tehran go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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 0‑2 Mohammad Dejagah left the room before anybody could ask which.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Naft Tehran lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ali Kamali did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Everything agreed with Gostaresh Foulad, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Persepolis keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Amir Abedzadeh 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Aria Barzegar 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.
A 2‑0 win over Esteghlal Khuzestan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Naft Tehran, another week without a signature from Mahyar Zahmatkesh.
The dugout17 Aug 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Mohammad Dejagah to a room that had heard them before.
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.
1 for Mohammad Reza Rezaei, marked 7.29, 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Esteghlal Khuzestan keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Amir Abedzadeh 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. Majid 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Omid Moharrami is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ahmad Gholizadeh 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. Milad Hosseini 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
In brief
SquadNaft Tehran are still strangers to each other
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mahyar Zahmatkesh has, at Naft Tehran, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Akbar Safarzadeh and Naft Tehran agree another 2 years.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 12 goals between Naft Tehran and Saba, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Naft Tehran
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sardar Gholizadeh 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Masoud Nekounam 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Masoud Azmoun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.