Two goals and a mark of 9.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sepahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricardo Alves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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.
Vahdat Hanonov 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 at Sepahan 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.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
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.” Ramin Vafaei chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Kaveh Rezaei 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 dugout22 Oct 2029
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Ramin Vafaei to a room that had heard them before.
Two goals and a mark of 8.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aaron Connolly. 3‑1 against Zob Ahan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Alves 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.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
Kaveh Rezaei 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 dugout15 Oct 2029
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.” Ramin Vafaei, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Aaron Connolly will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Sepahan escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aaron Connolly provided it, and the 9.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shahriar Hajsafi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sepahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Hossein Kazeminia 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 dugoutHalf-satisfied: Ramin Vafaei on the draw
Player ratingsHalf an hour was enough for Bryan Castillo
166Edition
The Sepahan Sentinel
1 Oct 2029
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
A brace, and Mees Rijks takes the afternoon — 9.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mees Rijks provided it, and the 9.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saman Torabi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sepahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Iván Sánchez 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.
Vahdat Hanonov 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.
10 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ramin Vafaei kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Esteghlal left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Alves 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 dugout24 Sep 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Ramin Vafaei left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Aaron Connolly is on it.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sepahan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Foolad held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Sepahan answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
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 Iván Sánchez is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ramin Vafaei after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.48 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Shahriar Hajsafi did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sepahan have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Iván Sánchez 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.
A 3‑2 win over Gostaresh Foulad, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Vahdat Hanonov 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.
He is 19 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 9.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saman Torabi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sepahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
6 goals in one match, Aaron Connolly on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Sepahan and Siah Jamegan.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Esteghlal paid $410.0K and Sepahan took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aaron Connolly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kaveh Rezaei 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 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Persepolis is saying, and nobody at Sepahan is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aaron Connolly 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. Baniyas have kept their man, and Sepahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.51 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sepahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everything agreed with Persepolis, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Mees Rijks was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sepahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sepahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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.
Sepahan asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sepahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sepahan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
At 17 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.
Sepahan asked and AEK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sepahan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
At 23 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atletico Nacional have kept their man, and Sepahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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 offer from Persepolis for Farhan Jafari 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 Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 23 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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. Zob Ahan have kept their man, and Sepahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Saman Torabi has come up in conversations Sepahan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nobody at Sepahan 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 23 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.
The deal with Foolad 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 have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Sepahan asked and Dynamo Kyiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Atletico Nacional 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.
“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 Sepahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 23 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.
Add another name to the list: Tractor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abbas Habibi. The answer from Sepahan has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Siah Jamegan have kept their man, and Sepahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Alves 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sepahan 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 Aaron Connolly 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. Atletico Nacional have kept their man, and Sepahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody at Sepahan 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.
Padideh arrived with $3.9M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sepahan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Mohammad Reza Bordbar has gone, the accounts have $3.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
$270.0K was the most the club would pay and Zob Ahan 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.
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.
Vahdat Hanonov 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.
Sepahan asked and Baltika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Amir Mehdi Maghsoudi has gone, the accounts have $920.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sepahan have done the hard part with Padideh, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The shirt still fits. Mohammad Karimi is back at Sepahan, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
$270.0K on the table at Zob Ahan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Persepolis paid $920.0K and Sepahan took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Esteghlal have accepted the money. What Sepahan do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aaron Connolly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Sepahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aaron Connolly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Sepahan 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 Mohammad Reza Bordbar 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 Sepahan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sepahan could ask drops and the wages Ali Rezaei can ask rise.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Vahdat Hanonov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 May 2029
Kaveh Rezaei 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.
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Sepahan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Esteghlal runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Sepahan 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 Sepahan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sepahan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Mohammad Reza Akhbari has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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.
Vahdat Hanonov 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.
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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sepahan can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Vahdat Hanonov 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kaveh Rezaei 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 Sepahan 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 Hossein Kazeminia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Mohammad Mahdi Lotfi’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
SquadFarhan Jafari is the talk of the training ground
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohammad Reza Akhbari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sepahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aaron Connolly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mohammad Reza Bordbar and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I watch every Sepahan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Saipa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Mees Rijks is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Sajjad Ashouri has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Sepahan have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sepahan, and 6 appearances in 35 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Sepahan 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sepahan can pretend not to have heard.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Sepahan will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mahan Bandani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sepahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sepahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ali Rezaei will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sepahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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.
Vahdat Hanonov 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 Hossein Hosseini is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammad Reza Bordbar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sepahan, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sepahan can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kaveh Rezaei is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sepahan, and 6 appearances in 31 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Iván Sánchez is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sepahan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sepahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aaron Connolly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vahdat Hanonov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Aaron Connolly is on it.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Hossein Hosseini: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sepahan can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ali Rezaei will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sepahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ali Rezaei 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 49 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
A brace, and Mees Rijks takes the afternoon — 9.07
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mees Rijks provided it, and the 9.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sepahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
A 2‑0 win over Saipa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kaveh Rezaei 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 Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sepahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aaron Connolly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Arash Rezavand 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 dugout19 Feb 2029
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 Ramin Vafaei 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aaron Connolly provided it, and the 9.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Marked 8.81 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Sepahan close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Vahdat Hanonov 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 Mohammad Reza Akhbari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Ramin Vafaei to a room that had heard them before.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mohammad Reza Yousefi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sepahan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sepahan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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.
Sepahan asked and Esteghlal Ahvaz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Zob Ahan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ali Rezaei. The answer from Sepahan has not changed — yet.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.43 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ehsan Hajsafi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sepahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with Padideh 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.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sepahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Aria Yousefi was one of the reasons people came, and $3.4M does not replace that by itself.
Sepahan asked and Esteghlal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Everything agreed with Malavan, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Sepahan asked and Malavan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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. 125 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sepahan can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sepahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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 words a physio says slowly. 42 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. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan 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: Aaron Connolly. 2‑0 against Gostaresh Foulad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ramin Vafaei could afford to be generous.
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 Aaron Connolly is on it.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sepahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Siah Jamegan will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Sepahan were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Amir Reza Jeddi has agreed terms with Malavan for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sepahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Sepahan will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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.
Marked 8.71 — 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.
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sepahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Vahdat Hanonov 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 summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at Sepahan and a proper look at me.” He remains Esteghlal’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ramin Vafaei after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A 2‑1 win over Zob Ahan, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
A brace, and Kaveh Rezaei takes the afternoon — 8.94
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kaveh Rezaei provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 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. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sepahan can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kaveh Rezaei 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Vahdat Hanonov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Gandomi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vahdat Hanonov is on it.
Squad20 Nov 2028
The division's best last weekend was a Sepahan man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Mees Rijks was the best thing in any of them.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ramin Vafaei on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sepahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ehsan Hajsafi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sepahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sepahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Kaveh Rezaei and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammad Reza Akhbari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ramin Vafaei could afford to be generous.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Vahdat Hanonov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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 1‑4 Ramin Vafaei left the room before anybody could ask which.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vahdat Hanonov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 7.29 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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 Iván Sánchez is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
6 goals in one match, Aaron Connolly on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Sepahan and Saba.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Mees Rijks was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.75. 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Sánchez 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.
Kaveh Rezaei 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
Player ratingsMehdi Limouchi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Kaveh Rezaei 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Omid Nourafkan has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sepahan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ramin Vafaei after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sepahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Farhan Jafari has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Sepahan will try again when the window opens; Zob Ahan may not be selling by then.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Arash Rezavand obliged against Siah Jamegan. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Sepahan.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 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. 8.23 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sepahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ehsan Hajsafi has agreed terms with Persepolis for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 13 gone
That is the business done at Sepahan 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Esteghlal Khuzestan moved on, Ali Rezaei reports back to Sepahan, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Sepahan have gone to Zob Ahan 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
$150.0K was the most the club would pay and Zob Ahan 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.
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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sepahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aaron Connolly provided it, and the 9.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Foolad did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $940.0K for Hossein Kazeminia, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Mohammad Reza Akhbari 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 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Sepahan and Persepolis, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
In brief
Transfer targetsNo deal for Mohammad Omri at that price
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aaron Connolly 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. 7.88 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sepahan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
At 28 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aaron Connolly. 2‑1 against Rah Ahan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mehdi Khoshbakht is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Kaveh Rezaei and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 4 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Sánchez 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 1‑0 win over Esteghlal Ahvaz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohammad Reza Bordbar is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Baltika keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Kaveh Rezaei 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Omid Nourafkan has improved at 31, 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.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Sepahan
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Majid Shojaei 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Karim Beiranvand is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Flamengo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
At 23 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Sepahan asked and Siah Jamegan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sepahan can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Farhan Jafari is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The name of Abbas Habibi has come up in conversations Sepahan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Sánchez 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.
Sepahan asked and Benevento said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abbas Habibi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sepahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mehdi Khoshbakht is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Iván Sánchez 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.
Sepahan asked and Persepolis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Kaveh Moharrami was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vahdat Hanonov is on it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Hajduk Split 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 Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Sepahan asked and Persepolis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Sepahan 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sepahan will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Foolad waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sepahan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammad Amin Hazbavi and Sepahan agree another 5 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan 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 Iván Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sepahan, another week without a signature from Mohammad Reza Akhbari.
Sepahan have made the call to Dynamo Kyiv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Sepahan have made the call to Hajduk Split. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The offer from Esteghlal for Abbas Habibi 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sepahan can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Baltika is saying, and nobody at Sepahan is enjoying the guessing.
Sepahan asked and Al-Nassr said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Davoud Noushi Soufiani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ricardo Alves
BoardroomThe Sepahan production line keeps running
99Edition
The Sepahan Sentinel
19 Jun 2028
From our football correspondentSteady
The terraces19 Jun 2028
Supporters turn on the $590.0K sale of Ramin Azizi
He is going to Naft Tehran, the club has $590.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Sepahan had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Nasr, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Kaveh Rezaei 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sepahan are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sepahan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kaveh Rezaei 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Mohammad Reza Akhbari is a Sepahan player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Sepahan offered $140.0K; Tractor said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Iván Sánchez 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mahan Bandani commits to Sepahan for another 4 years.
Squad12 Jun 2028
9 new faces, and Sepahan are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Leonel Wamba is in the works
The offer went to Persepolis 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.
The offer from Persepolis for Mohammad Reza Bordbar 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Sepahan have had the benefit of it.
Sepahan and Persepolis have settled on $31.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The one award nobody else on the pitch can win goes to Hossein Hosseini, on 14 clean sheets across the season. Keepers wait a career for a season like it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Iván Sánchez 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.
Tractor go through and Sepahan go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ramin Vafaei after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Mohammad Gandomi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Arash Rezavand will call it something else in private.
Nobody at Sepahan 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 new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Sepahan have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Mees Rijks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sepahan, and 4 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Vahdat Hanonov 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 Davoud Noushi Soufiani has written the date down.
Kaveh Rezaei 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 Iván Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sepahan, and 4 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Hossein Hosseini 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 Sepahan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Mohammad Amin Hazbavi plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Saman Torabi on the training pitch
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Sepahan 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Mohammad Reza Bordbar has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Kaveh Rezaei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
Iván Sánchez 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 watch every Sepahan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Esteghlal Ahvaz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Sepahan 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Sepahan has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mehrdad Rezaei trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Ricardo Alves’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
BoardroomThe Sepahan production line keeps running
Iván Sánchez 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Kaveh Rezaei 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.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Iván Sánchez’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Sepahan the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sepahan, and 4 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Mohammad Gandomi 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.
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 Iván Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Esteghlal Khuzestan will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Mohammad Ahleshakheh has pre-agreed a move to Sepahan, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Vahdat Hanonov 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 watch every Sepahan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Esteghlal Ahvaz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Iván Sánchez 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 Sepahan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Ricardo Alves’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Kaveh Rezaei and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sepahan, and 6 appearances in 32 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Vahdat Hanonov 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 Mees Rijks has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sepahan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kaveh Rezaei 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sepahan, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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 Hossein Hosseini is on it.
“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 Sepahan will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Iván Sánchez 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Sepahan 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sepahan told Abbas Habibi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sepahan, another week without a signature from Ehsan Hajsafi.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Sepahan that is a harder question to answer.
3 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
7.66, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Hamid Bouhamdan has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Sepahan have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Minute 91, against Padideh, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Abbas Habibi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Abbas Habibi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sepahan 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 Iván Sánchez is on it.
Kaveh Rezaei 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 Iván Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aaron Connolly. 2‑0 against Saipa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aaron Connolly provided it, and the 8.86 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. 8.09 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Sánchez 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 ratings21 Feb 2028
Mees Rijks was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.87. 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sepahan, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Persepolis keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Vahdat Hanonov 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 Ehsan Hajsafi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Padideh kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Sepahan will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Sepahan 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sepahan have done the hard part with Persepolis, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Kaveh Rezaei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Sánchez 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.
Sepahan ran out of time with Tractor. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Abbas Habibi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Foolad for Mohammad Reza Bordbar 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Kaveh Rezaei 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Sánchez 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.
Sepahan asked and Esteghlal Ahvaz 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 Persepolis for Omid Nourafkan 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Arash Rezavand 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.
6 goals in one match, Aaron Connolly on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Sepahan and Saba.
He is going to Persepolis, the club has $1.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Zob Ahan have accepted the money. What Sepahan do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Sepahan had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Persepolis, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Sánchez 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. Esteghlal Khuzestan have kept their man, and Sepahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Persepolis arrived with $4.9M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Kasra Taheri has gone, the accounts have $4.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.78 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohammad Mahdi Lotfi and Sepahan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The offer from Tractor for Kasra Taheri 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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Sepahan had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The phone has started ringing about Aref Haji Eydi again, and this time the name on the line is Persepolis. Sepahan are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricardo Alves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.32 — 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.29 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad27 Dec 2027
At 21, Kasra Taheri is already the best thing here
An average of 7.20 in a first team he is several years too young for. Sepahan have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vahdat Hanonov 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.
Level with 92 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Sepahan had all but put away. Gostaresh Foulad will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
It needed Ricardo Alves 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.
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ramin Vafaei was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Sepahan dressing room was either.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sepahan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Siah Jamegan; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Kaveh Rezaei 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 Iván Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kaveh Rezaei 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Alves 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 first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Persepolis; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Hossein Hosseini now has 24 of them across 272 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.