Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Naft Tehran will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Naft Tehran will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pouria Meshalgerdi 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.
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.
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 Parham Movaghari is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Naft Tehran. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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.
52 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ali Kolahkaj
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 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naft Tehran 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 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.
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 Ramin Azizi is on it.
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.
“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 Mohammad Reza Ghobeishavi.
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 Naft Tehran, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Naft Tehran will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Amin Heydari a promise
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.
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Mohammad Reza Ghobeishavi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pouria Meshalgerdi 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 at Naft Tehran 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.
“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.
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 Asliddin Toshtemirov has written the date down.
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pouria Meshalgerdi 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.
In brief
The dugoutMehdi Sorkhi has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Nobody at Naft Tehran 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 Farjad Fayaz 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 Naft Tehran. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Mahan Sadeghi has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pouria Meshalgerdi 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Naft Tehran will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
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 Parham Movaghari is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amin Heydari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
BoardroomThe Naft Tehran production line keeps running
“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 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 Mehdi Sorkhi is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Naft Tehran know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Amin Heydari a promise
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pouria Meshalgerdi 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 at Naft Tehran 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.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mahan Sadeghi signs something — a contract at Naft Tehran or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Akromjon Komilov commits to Naft Tehran for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pouria Meshalgerdi 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Naft Tehran will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 Parham Movaghari is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Naft Tehran know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Naft Tehran would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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 Ramin Azizi 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 Naft Tehran, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
BoardroomThe Naft Tehran production line keeps running
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match21 Feb 2032
Mehdi Rezaeian wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Mehdi Rezaeian found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Malavan went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
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.
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pouria Meshalgerdi 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.
He is 20 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mehdi Rezaeian. 1‑0 against Malavan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsMahan Sadeghi beats them one at a time
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Mehdi Rezaeian at his very best
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Naft Tehran will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pouria Meshalgerdi 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 season average of 7.28 with 4 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout16 Feb 2032
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ahmad Mohammadi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Naft Tehran 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.
Nobody at Naft Tehran is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Naft Tehran will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naft Tehran 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 Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 17 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Amir Abedzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pouria Meshalgerdi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Foolad have kept their man, and Naft Tehran go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout2 Feb 2032
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ahmad Mohammadi to a room that had heard them before.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The 3-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Mahan Sadeghi was at the centre of it, Siah Jamegan were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
$310.0K was the most the club would pay and Foolad 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.
Marked 9.95 — 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Naft Tehran will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0‑4 against Persepolis, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Nautico is saying, and nobody at Naft Tehran is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to Foolad 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.
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.
Naft Tehran asked and Racing Club 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 from Saba for Amin Heydari 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zira is saying, and nobody at Naft Tehran is enjoying the guessing.
Naft Tehran have gone to Malavan with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Naft Tehran will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pouria Meshalgerdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Naft Tehran asked and Nasaf 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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Naft Tehran had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
He is 18 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Naft Tehran and Tractor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings29 Dec 2031
Mahan Sadeghi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.54. 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.
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.
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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amir Abedzadeh, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Dec 2031
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 1‑3 Ahmad Mohammadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Naft Tehran 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.
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.
10 goals in one match, Sepehr Simanpour on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Naft Tehran and Esteghlal.
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.
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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thievy Bifouma commits to Naft Tehran for another 1 years.
The dugout8 Dec 2031
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 Ahmad Mohammadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Saeed Amiri is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
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.
In brief
The dugoutAmin Heydari has become a man the manager trusts
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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Naft Tehran and Padideh in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
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 dugout1 Dec 2031
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 1‑7 defeat, delivered by Ahmad Mohammadi to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ali Kolahkaj. 2‑0 against Zob Ahan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A season average of 7.21 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akromjon Komilov 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.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
Saeed Amiri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 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 Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ahmad Mohammadi on a 5‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 Parham Movaghari is on 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.
Player ratings10 Nov 2031
Mahan Sadeghi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.51. 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.
Player ratings10 Nov 2031
Mehdi Rezaeian was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. 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.
Half the programme played, position 9, 22 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.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Naft Tehran and Sepahan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
A brace, and Ali Kolahkaj takes the afternoon — 9.25
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ali Kolahkaj provided it, and the 9.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Foolad made Naft Tehran work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings27 Oct 2031
Mahan Sadeghi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.00. 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ehsan Shojaei and Naft Tehran agree another 4 years.
The dugout27 Oct 2031
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.” Ahmad Mohammadi, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
It needed Mahan Sadeghi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Gostaresh Foulad, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Foolad next, and one man in the Naft Tehran dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Two goals and a mark of 9.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akromjon Komilov 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 performance of 8.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
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.” Ahmad Mohammadi, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
1‑5 to Persepolis, 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.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Naft Tehran and Persepolis in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thievy Bifouma and Naft Tehran agree another 1 years.
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.
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 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at Naft Tehran is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Saeid Rezaeian
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Esteghlal Ahvaz spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akromjon Komilov 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.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Farjad Fayaz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ahmad Mohammadi could afford to be generous.
Milad Rezaeian had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Tractor were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
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.
He is 18 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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 dugout15 Sep 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Amir Abedzadeh'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.
Padideh ended it 4‑6. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings8 Sep 2031
A brace, and Mehdi Sorkhi takes the afternoon — 9.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mehdi Sorkhi provided it, and the 9.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Naft Tehran and Padideh in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
0‑10 to Esteghlal, 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.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Naft Tehran 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.
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.
Match30 Aug 2031
Nobody could stop scoring
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Naft Tehran and Esteghlal in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Naft Tehran asked and Foolad 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 Akromjon Komilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
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.
In brief
The dugoutMehdi Rezaeian is still being punished for one mistake
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
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.
Naft Tehran 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Esteghlal Khuzestan had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Nobody at Naft Tehran 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ahmad Mohammadi after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
2‑5 to Padideh, 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 offer from Saba for Amin Heydari 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 18 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.
7 goals in one match, Ali Kolahkaj on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Naft Tehran and Padideh.
Naft Tehran asked and River Plate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
SquadWords at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
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.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Asliddin Toshtemirov and Naft Tehran agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
The deal with Al Ahli 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
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.
At 20 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Zira keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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 21 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.
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.
Naft Tehran 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.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pouria Meshalgerdi 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.
Naft Tehran have made the call to Envigado. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Parham Movaghari is on it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Amin Heydari had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
At 18 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.
$340.0K was the most the club would pay and Foolad 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aris have kept their man, and Naft Tehran 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.
20 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.
Naft Tehran have gone to Foolad with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ashkan Azmoun is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 25 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saeed Amiri signs something — a contract at Naft Tehran or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Naft Tehran 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.
In brief
The dugoutVahid Rezaeian asks for a word with the manager
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naft Tehran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Naft Tehran have done the hard part with Foolad, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Astra is saying, and nobody at Naft Tehran is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akromjon Komilov 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 words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Naft Tehran have gone to Foolad with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Naft Tehran asked and Crvena Zvezda 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 phone has started ringing about Mehdi Sorkhi again, and this time the name on the line is Saba. Naft Tehran are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naft Tehran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have shaken hands with Foolad; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
Naft Tehran asked and Zira said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Amin Heydari is on it.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naft Tehran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Amin Heydari had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Ettifaq keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$280.0K 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.
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.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akromjon Komilov 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 at Naft Tehran 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.
In brief
The dugoutFarjad Fayaz knocks on the manager's door
57 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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Amin Heydari again, and this time the name on the line is Esteghlal Ahvaz. Naft Tehran are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 Ramin Azizi is on it.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naft Tehran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Naft Tehran had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Parham Movaghari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Naft Tehran were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Naft Tehran have made the call to Al-Ettifaq. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Naft Tehran have made the call to Foolad. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
72 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Naft Tehran they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad26 May 2031
Mahan Sadeghi 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 Naft Tehran, and both men came out saying it was fine.
40 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Amir Abedzadeh has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naft Tehran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Naft Tehran they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahan Sadeghi 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 Mehdi Sorkhi is on it.
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 Akromjon Komilov has written the date down.
88 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.
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.
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 Ramin Azizi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saeed Amiri signs something — a contract at Naft Tehran or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naft Tehran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Amir Abedzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 May 2031
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahan Sadeghi 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 at Naft Tehran 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. Naft Tehran know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amin Heydari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Naft Tehran the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Mahan Sadeghi 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 Amin Heydari is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Naft Tehran. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Farjad Fayaz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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 agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naft Tehran is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Vouria Taremi 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.
In brief
The dugoutMehdi Sorkhi has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahan Sadeghi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Milad Rezaeian and Naft Tehran agree another 5 years.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Milad Rezaeian has his answer from Naft Tehran; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Amir Abedzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Mahan Sadeghi 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Amin Heydari has his answer from Naft Tehran; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Naft Tehran they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Naft Tehran will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vouria Taremi 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naft Tehran have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Naft Tehran they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Mahan Sadeghi 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 Mehdi Sorkhi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohammad Reza Ghobeishavi signs something — a contract at Naft Tehran or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahan Sadeghi 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 Ramin Azizi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saeed Amiri signs something — a contract at Naft Tehran or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Naft Tehran. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Naft Tehran told Amir Mehdi Janmaleki something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Parham Movaghari is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vouria Taremi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amin Heydari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Naft Tehran the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Mahan Sadeghi 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Akromjon Komilov, and the manager let it.
Squad3 Mar 2031
A place in the month's best eleven for Ramin Azmoun
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ramin Azmoun has come out of that comparison in the side, and Naft Tehran have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 Amin Heydari is on 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 Naft Tehran, and both men came out saying it was fine.
14 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Malavan kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Naft Tehran will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Position 9 on 37 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
25 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings24 Feb 2031
A brace, and Ali Kolahkaj takes the afternoon — 8.97
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ali Kolahkaj provided it, and the 8.97 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.” Naft Tehran have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naft Tehran is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
In brief
SquadMahan Sadeghi falls out with a teammate over standards
13 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Sepahan scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
12 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Naft Tehran people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahan Sadeghi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alireza Naghizadeh and Naft Tehran agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Gostaresh Foulad will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Naft Tehran were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 11 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Diriyah keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Naft Tehran and Gostaresh Foulad in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
10 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Player ratings27 Jan 2031
A brace, and Ali Kolahkaj takes the afternoon — 8.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ali Kolahkaj provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Siah Jamegan were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Naft Tehran they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
8 goals in one match, Ali Kolahkaj on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Naft Tehran and Siah Jamegan.
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.
0‑3 against Persepolis, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Foolad have kept their man, and Naft Tehran go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahan Sadeghi 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.
8 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Zagreb keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Amir Abedzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahan Sadeghi 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.
Naft Tehran asked and Wisla Krakow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naft Tehran have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Naft Tehran had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Akromjon Komilov and Naft Tehran agree another 2 years.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vouria Taremi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Naft Tehran the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Vouria Taremi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Parham Movaghari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Parham Movaghari 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Milad Rezaeian and Naft Tehran agree another 5 years.
1‑12 to Esteghlal, 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.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 13 goals between Naft Tehran and Esteghlal, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naft Tehran 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 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.
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.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Parham Movaghari 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
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 Ahmad Mohammadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vouria Taremi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 44. 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Naft Tehran and Saba in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Two goals and a mark of 8.03 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 Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahan Sadeghi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naft Tehran have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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.
A brace, and Ali Kolahkaj takes the afternoon — 8.85
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ali Kolahkaj provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahan Sadeghi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Mahan Sadeghi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.56. 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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahan Sadeghi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Something was said to Thievy Bifouma and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ahmad Mohammadi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
17 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Naft Tehran will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Naft Tehran will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Naft Tehran and Siah Jamegan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
1‑4 against Persepolis, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Naft Tehran 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 Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ahmad Mohammadi after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
33 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Naft Tehran will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahan Sadeghi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ahmad Mohammadi after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naft Tehran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Naft Tehran will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mahan Sadeghi. 2‑0 against Esteghlal Ahvaz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
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.” Ahmad Mohammadi, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
49 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.
Going 3 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Naft Tehran rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Tractor had no answer to any of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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.
59 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.
Pejman Ebrahimi had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Zob Ahan were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Pejman Ebrahimi, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
5 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. 16 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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. Naft Tehran will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
73 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Naft Tehran will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Naft Tehran, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Parham Movaghari 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. Universitatea Craiova have kept their man, and Naft Tehran go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
0‑2 to Esteghlal Khuzestan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
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 Ahmad Mohammadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
81 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.
1‑5 to Padideh, 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Naft Tehran have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Amin Heydari had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Naft Tehran have done the hard part with Istra 1961, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Naft Tehran and Padideh, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
90 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer from Rah Ahan for Amin Heydari 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is saying, and nobody at Naft Tehran is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ali Kolahkaj. 2‑1 against Zob Ahan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zob Ahan had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Naft Tehran they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Amir Abedzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
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.
105 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Naft Tehran can pretend not to have heard.
Naft Tehran had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Nea Salamis, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
The offer went to Padideh 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Shahriar Noorafkan is living that version at Naft Tehran, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahan Sadeghi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Naft Tehran asked and Esteghlal Khuzestan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Shahriar Noorafkan is 18, and Naft Tehran have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Naft Tehran have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal with Nea Salamis 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Panetolikos 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vahid Rezaeian commits to Naft Tehran for another 4 years.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Vouria Taremi 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.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naft Tehran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Naft Tehran people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mehdi Sorkhi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Zagreb keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahan Sadeghi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Naft Tehran have made the call to Nea Salamis. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ramin Azizi
The offer from Rah Ahan for Amin Heydari 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naft Tehran is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Panetolikos 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.
Amir Abedzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Ali Kolahkaj has improved at 24, which nobody expected
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.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahan Sadeghi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Ahli have kept their man, and Naft Tehran go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dinamo Zagreb have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.