From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Aug 2026
Saipa taken apart
0‑3 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$4.7M was the most the club would pay and Tractor 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $402.5K — a club that wants Hamid Reza Shamsipour enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Malavan 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ali Dehghan in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Saipa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Saipa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Abdi 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 Aug 2026
Ali Dehghan ran the middle of the pitch — 6.88
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.88, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
$3.0M. Fees like that buy a footballer and rent a debate: every touch will be measured against the number for a season at least.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Bahman Salari takes the afternoon — 8.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bahman Salari provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Saipa have gone to Esteghlal 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Saipa
Ali Dehghan 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
Saipa spend $3.0M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.0M for Mohammad Jahanbakhsh, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Match15 Aug 2026
Zob Ahan made Saipa work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match15 Aug 2026
Saipa settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Zob Ahan spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Saipa training over how hard people work
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Saipa
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The dugout
Ramin Moharrami: “That is the standard”
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Saipa have gone to Padideh 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Saipa
Ali Dehghan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match8 Aug 2026
Saipa get the job done against Saba
A 2‑1 win over Saba, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kaveh Ghoddos has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Masoud Khodadad has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Shahriar Dejagah has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Saman Ghoddos joins the Saipa first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saman Ghoddos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match8 Aug 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Bahman Salari had Saipa level again within 3 minutes, and Saba never got to play with a lead at all.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ali Dehghan and Saipa agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Saipa
Ali Dehghan 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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
3 academy graduates step up at Saipa
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Saipa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Sattari 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sepahan have kept their man, and Saipa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
One of our own: Mehdi Hajsafi joins the Saipa first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mehdi Hajsafi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alireza Mohammadi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ramin Noorafkan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.