Tag: Brentford

Ghalenoei and Ghoddos on touchline

The Declining Quality of Players in Iran’s Domestic League: Are Selections Truly Based on Merit?

The latest roster for Iran’s national football team, announced for the upcoming FIFA matches against Kyrgyzstan and the UAE, has sparked significant debate. The declining quality of players in the Iranian Premier League has left Team Melli’s coach, Amir Ghalenoei, with difficult choices. While Ghalenoei has made efforts to address fans’ concerns and silence his critics, especially regarding his tendency to select the same veteran players, his latest squad decisions have raised questions about whether the selections are truly merit-based.

The Biggest Challenge

The declining standard of Iran’s league and the failure of the system to produce quality players at age levels and senior level remains the greatest challenge to any selector. Watching a domestic league football in Iran leaves a bad taste for football enthusiasts. Poor tactical and techniques, lack of players’ skills, sub-standard coach, lack of professionalism amongst players and staff, poor status of the pitches and general lack of managerial and organizational management that is rife in Iran, have resulted in poor product that is getting worse over the years. As such, the hands of Team Melli’s coach are tied, but even considering all those negative factors, many believe that Ghalenoei can do much better.

The Controversial Selection Process

Ghalenoei’s player selections have often been met with controversy and inconsistency. What he preaches to the press does not always align with his practices on the field.

Players Who Don’t Deserve Their Spot, while others are ignored.

Critics argue that Ghalenoei has included players who are either not physically ready, out of form, or simply lacking the quality to be part of the national team. While other deserving players are excluded. For instance, the exclusion of Ramin Rezaian, despite his excellent performances for Esteghlal in the new season, is puzzling. Rezaian has scored two goals and provided one assist in the last three weeks, earning praise from critics and fans alike. When questioned, Ghalenoei would likely justify this by citing his new policy of injecting youth and energy into the team, exemplified by the inclusion of 18-year-old goalkeeper Arsha Shakuri.

On the other hand, players like Saeed Saharkhizan and Mohammad Javad Hosseinnejad, who have been performing admirably in the Russian league, were overlooked. Hosseinnejad even scored a brilliant goal last week for his club, yet this wasn’t enough to earn him a place in the national squad.

The Shortage of Quality Players

The lack of high-quality, young players in Iranian football has left Ghalenoei with no choice but to rely on experienced familiar faces. In the midfield, the same regular players have been selected, which is understandable given the circumstances. However, some of these choices are questionable and even indefensible.

Saeid Ezatollahi
Ezatollahi, who plays for Shabab Al-Ahli, hasn’t played a single minute for his club due to recovering from a three-month injury. While Sardar Azmoun, his clubmate, is scoring regularly, Ezatollahi has just resumed serious training and is not yet in form for league competition. Yet, in Ghalenoei’s eyes, a fit but out-of-form player is good enough for selection. Ezatollahi, who has struggled throughout his career, remains a contentious choice, especially when players like Rouzbeh Cheshmi, with a proven track record, are ignored.

Arsha Shakouri
The young goalkeeper Shakouri, despite his potential, has shown inconsistency this season. While he did keep a clean sheet against Zob Ahan, he conceded five goals in the matches against Khyber Khorram Abad and Tractor. Meanwhile, Mohammad Reza Akhbari, who has two clean sheets and former national team experience, was left out of the squad. This raises questions about the criteria used for player selection and whether these decisions are truly data-driven.

Questionable Veteran Selections

The inclusion of Saeed Ezatollahi, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, and Saman Ghoddos in the national team also raises eyebrows. Ezatollahi has not played since June 6 due to injury, while Jahanbakhsh and Ghoddos have struggled in Europe, losing their starting positions and failing to secure contract renewals. Both are now free agents, yet they remain key figures in Ghalenoei’s squad, highlighting the lack of depth in the Iranian domestic league and the challenges facing Team Melli.

Abolfazl Jalali
Jalali, a talented defender, has been selected despite being injured before the start of the season and having minimal playing time. While his quality is undeniable, the timing of his inclusion is questionable.

Ehsan Haj Safi
If Ghalenoei is serious about rejuvenating the team, excluding the captain might make sense. However, Haj Safi remains a regular starter for AEK Athens and continues to perform well. Ignoring him while selecting players like Khalilzadeh, who is 34 years old, seems contradictory.

Shoja’a Khalilzadeh
Khalilzadeh, a long-time national team regular known for his fighting spirit, has been selected again despite his declining pace and temperamental issues. Ghalenoei’s insistence on using the same defensive tactics and personnel, despite the defense being the weakest link, is a point of concern.

Conclusion: A Lack of Insight in Selections?

While a coach can only choose from the best players available, Ghalenoei’s judgment and decision-making continue to be questioned. His criteria for player selection remain an enigma, lacking clear insight and logic.

The plight of Team Melli players in Europe

The spiral dive of Iranian footballers’ fortunes have continued since the conclusion of the FIFA World Cup 2022.

It is safe to say that apart from Mehdi Taremi, in one match against England, none of the Team Melli players displayed any meaningful football or quality in the World Cup to attract interest from European clubs, or even regional Persian Gulf leagues. As if this was bad with no buyers turning up for the Iranian stars, most of the Team Melli players (on the edge or above 30 years old) even household names are struggling in their clubs too,

Perhaps the most noticeable fall from grace and drop in form has to be that of Sardar Azmoun. The days when the central forward of Team Melli was in Russia playing for Zenit, were perhaps the greatest achievement of any Iranian player in history. Not only Azmoun won several titles with the St. Petersburg club, he also achieved the title of top scorer in the Russian league to become only the second Iranian footballer to do so after Alireza Jahanbakhsh in the Netherlands Eredivisie.

Then came that dreadful transfer to the Bundesliga.

No doubt, the injury to Sardar was a great setback at the time when he needed to prove himself at Bayer Leverkusen, however, even after full recovery, Azmoun was far from convincing and lacked the quality to earn himself a place in the starting line up for a middle of the table Bundesliga club. Now, Leverkusen is thinking of cutting their losses by loaning him to other clubs.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh is another player whose winning the top scorer title was a bad omen. His time with Brighton in the Premiere league was best to be forgotten. On his return to the Eredivisie with Feyenoord this time, it was hoped that Jahanbaksh will rediscover himself and find the quality that abandoned him in England. It was not to be as Jahanbakhs steady decline and poor showing made him a semi-permanent bench warmer. Jahanbakhsh never utilized the occasional playing time he was afforded to prove himself. It is safe to say that he will be on the unwanted list of Feyenoord by the end of the season, barring a miracle, that is.

in Charleroi, Ali Gholizadeh was a lively and important player. The winger had enough quality to force the Belgian club to renew his contract for another three years, however, the jinx of drop in form hit Gholizadeh too, this time in Belgium. Recently, it seems that the winger of Team Melli has been facing domestic problems complicating the matter even further.

Royal Charleroi will face the Union team in the framework of the 23rd week of the Belgian league. Charleroi’s 20-man squad was announced for this match, while the name of Iranian winger Ali Gholizadeh was once again missing from the list. In last week’s game against Club Brugge, Gholizadeh was left out by head coach Felice Mazo’s, and this happened for the second week in a row. The Belgium website ‘le Soir claimed that Ali Gholizadeh’s mind is somewhere else and this Iranian player is getting closer and closer to the exit door of the club.

Saman Ghoddos continues to be a fringe player in the Premier League with Brentford, with cameo appearances every now and then. Saeed Ezatollahi plays in the second division of the Danish league, which even the local media hardly covers. Ehsan Hajsafi and Milad Mohammadi play in AEK Athens, The latter has seen action in 10 of the 19 league e matches his club played only six as a starter while Hajsafi fared much better with 12 matches starting and 1 substitute out of 19.

Majid Hosseni’s club Kayserispor is currently ranked 8th in the Turkish Süper Lig. With the domestic league at halfway stage, Hossini has featured in 15 out of 19 matches, displaying acceptable form in most of the matches. He is one of the few successful Iranian players in Europe.

The onus on Mehdi Taremi  to continue being the flag bearer of Iranian footballers. Although far from perfect, Taremi continues displaying quality and scoring valuable goals for his club. He is the only Team Melli player who is making headlines in Europe.

Saman Ghoddos out of the squad.

Team Melli midfielder Saman Ghoddos has been diagnosed positive in the latest PCR and hence lost the chance to travel to the Korean capital for the match against the host nation and the following match against Lebanon in Mashad.

In a communique with the FFIRI Brentford, the premiere league club from London has confirmed that Ghoddos will not be available for selection for the upcoming international matches.

Hamid Estili, who has recently been appointed as the new Manager of the Iranian national team, confirmed the news: “Unfortunately, we will not have Ghoddos in these two matches, but we hope that other legionnaires will be able to join the squad and play for Team Melli without any problem”. Saman Ghoddos was a starter and played both the last two matches against UAE and Iraq. His absence gives coach Dragan Skocic some difficulty. Skocic has announced that the result of the game against South Korea is very important to the team.

Team Melli arrived early morning Sunday in Korea and after the PCR test, were immediately sent to quarantine. Many Legionnaire players are yet to join including Azmoun who played for Leverkusen today in a 2-0 away win versus Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. Taremi is also expected to leave for Korea after the match against Boavista. Milad Mohammadi, Ehsan Hajsafi, and Karim Ansari also played for AEK Athens in a 1-0 loss to PAOK in the Greek league.

Team Melli preparations and brief.

Team Melli Manager says that according to the coaching staff, 10 players present in the current camp are selected to continue attending the final phase together with the legionnaires. They form the final list of the Team Melli squad.

The first phase of the national team training camp was concluded with the presence of 22 domestic league players. The coaching staff shortlisted 10 players for the final list for the games against Syria and Iraq. Mojtaba Khorshidi, the national football team Manager, announced the list of selected players on the website of the Football Federation

Saleh Hardani, Siavash Yazdani, Omid Nourafkan, Milad Sarlak, Yasin Salmani, Mehdi Torabi, Mohammad Karimi, Zubair Niknafs, Aref Aghasi, and Vahid Amiri

Khorshidi also mentioned an important point about the 12 players whose names are not in the final list and added: “The absence of these players in the final list is not due to their poor quality or poor performance in training. Mr. Skocic emphasized that not being in the final list should not disappoint these players and their performance will always be considered by the head coach and the technical staff of the national team, they will definitely have a chance to be in the national team in the future.”

 Mojtaba Khorshidi also confirmed the absence of four injured players in the final list: Ehsan Haj Safi, Morteza Pouraliganji, Seyed Majid Hosseini and Ali Karimi are the four players whose names were to be included in the final list of the national team. Their injuries rendered them unavailable.

After the weekend games in Europe, it is expected that most legionnaires in the squad will be arriving in Tehran within a day or two.

It is interesting to note that Dragan Skocic was in quarantine after he was tested positively for COVID19. His assistants carried on training with the squad and the list is prepared after consultation with all stakeholders. In addition to head coach Skocic, his Iranian assistant Vahid Hashemian, who also tested positive, was absent from training.

Both the Team Melli forwards, Sardar Azmoun (Zenit) and Mehdi Taremi (Porto) were on the scoring sheet with their respective teams while Saman Ghoddos whose appearance remains in doubt was one of the better players in the EPL match between Brentford and Aston Villa.

Team Melli might be without Saman Ghoddos!

Saman Ghoddos may not be able to accompany Team Melli for the upcoming two matches of World Cup qualifiers due to the recent changes announced by the English Football League.

The Team Melli camp begins with a group of domestic league players and in few days, the legionnaires will arrive in Tehran to join for the match against Syria. Among the about 20 legionnaires invited to the national team, Saman Ghoddos may not be able to accompany the team against Syria and Iraq due to Iran’s health regulations associated with covid19 and the new English Premier League restrictions on players.

The Premier League said in a statement yesterday: “The Premier League clubs today, despite their reluctance, unanimously decided not to allow players to travel to countries on the red list. The decision of these clubs is supported by the Premier League. And about 60 players from the 19 Premier League clubs who are set to travel to 26 countries on the red list for the September national games will be negotiated with the Football Association and the government to find a solution. But due to concerns, there is no exemption for travelers from entering the Red List countries.”

As a result of this new restriction, Liverpool was the first EPL Club that has not allowed the departure of several of its national team players, including Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, Fabinho, Alison Becker, because Egypt and Brazil are on the Red List.

Considering the Covid19 situation in Iran and the daily cases exceeding 40,000 people infected with death figures of 700 patients in recent times, it seems that the restriction will apply to Brentford Midfielder, Saman Ghoddos.

If that is the case, Skocic will be without the services of one of the best legionnaires.  Ghoddos is the only Iranian player to play in four major leagues in the world. In the last Team Melli games in Bahrain, Ghoddos showed his excellent technical qualities and sharp eyes for creating scoring chances for his forwards. with defense-splitting passes.  Apparently, it seems Skocic will be deprived of this player’s qualities.

Skocic had previously lost Morteza PouraliGanji and Aref Gholami due to a cruciate ligament rupture, and Ehsan Hajsefi’s injury sparked speculation about the possible absence of the national team captain. It remains to be seen where the Football Federation’s consultations will go in the coming days, and if Ghoddos is not invited to the squad, it has certainly been imposed on players due to Premier League restrictions. Ghoddos recently had the opportunity to play for his club in the second week of EPL, and last night he played 90 minutes for Brentford in the Carabao Cup, in which he was his team’s best player Bretford winning 3-1.

Two Team Melli legionnaires shine for their teams.

It was another sweet week for Team Melli player in Europe.

Yesterday, Mehdi Taremi was the Man of the Match for FC Porto in the 3-1 win against FC Famalicão

Porto got themselves started with Taremi’s first-time goal in the 13th minute before the Iranian’s goal was canceled out seven minutes later through Jhonata Robert’s penalty. Sérgio Oliveira scored from the spot-kick too just moments later, dispatching Porto’s second of the night and giving his side a 2-1 lead going into the break.

Mehdi Taremi once again displayed his quality and added greater comfort to the visitors’ lead in the 57th minute, looping a header into an unattended net to grab a second for himself and make it 3-1.

Famalicão aimed for a final push but, in times of desperation, Porto proved to be ruthless on the counter, adding the finishing touches to a 4-1 victory with a precise drive from João Mário, fresh off Sérgio Conceição’s bench.

Taremi has scored 6 goals in the Primeira Liga so far for Porto.

Today, yet another nearly forgotten Team Melli player made the headlines for his team. Saman Ghoddos, assisted in the first goal while scoring the second and the winner for his club Brentford in the third round of the FA Cup in London.

Ghoddos, who is still not a fixed starter for the Championship side that is aiming to win promotion to the Premier League, has shown enough quality and skill to challenge for a starting place. In today’s match, he was chosen as the Man of the Match, and with this 2-1 win against Middlesbrough, Goddos has helped his team to a place in the FA Cup fourth round draw.

Saman Ghoddos interview in Brentford.

Saman Ghoddos was welcomed to Brentford after he signed on an initial one-year loan deal. The Team Melli attacker was straight into his work at Jersey Road before sitting down with the club PR for his first chat as a Brentford player. The Iranian international talked about his long-awaited move, what he wants to bring to the squad and his first impressions of the club.

 

Saman Ghoddos heading to the Championship outfit Brentford.

Brentford agreed a deal with Amiens to sign attacking midfielder Saman Ghoddos.

The Ligue 2 outfit has given the Team Melli player the green light to leave the club after their relegation from France’s top flight last season as per a contract clause.

A source at Brentford has told Football Insider that the 27-year-old has already undertaken his medical over in France and that the move is set to be completed shortly. Ghoddos will have to undergo the mandatory 2 weeks self-quarantine as per British regulation on new arrivals into the country.

Ghoddos has been a long-term target for Bees boss Thomas Frank and the Championship outfit tried to sign the playmaker last summer.

However, he remained with Amiens but spent most of the season on the sidelines through both suspension and injury as the club were relegated.

He was suspended from playing for four months and fined by FIFA after he reneged on a written contract with Spanish outfit SD Huesca to move to France.

Having returned to action back in January this year, he suffered a hip injury which kept him sidelined for seven league games and he managed to make just two more appearances before the French football season was cut short.

The 21-cap international star now looks set to bolster Brentford’s side as Frank’s men look to bounce back from their play-off disappointment last season. The team is one of the challengers for promotion to the premier league this season.

Brentford kicked off the 20/21 campaign with a 1-0 defeat to Birmingham, although they progressed to the next round of the League Cup with a 2-0 win over Southampton.

Saman Ghoddos to English Championship side Brentford

Exclusive: Brentford agree deal to sign international attacker, medical imminent
Date: 6th August 2019 at 7:49pm
Written by: 

EXCLUSIVE by Pete O’Rourke

Brentford has agreed on a deal to sign Amiens attacker Saman Ghoddos, Football Insider understands.

Brentford have lined up a deal for the Iranian international to replace Neal Maupay following his departure to Brighton earlier this week.

A source at the Beeds has told Football Insider that Ghoddos, who played for Iran at the 2018 World Cup and AFC Asian Cup 2019, is now set for talks and a medical at Griffin Park as Brentford look to finalise the move before Thursday’s transfer deadline.


Ghoddos can play in an attacking midfield role or anywhere across the frontline and Brentford have been tracking him for some time.

The Bees’ Championship rivals Fulham and Queens Park Rangers tried to sign Ghoddos before he joined Amiens last summer from Swedish club Ostersunds.


Ghoddos scored four goals and provided four assists in 27 games in his debut season in Ligue 1 last season, while he has 18 caps under his belt for his country.

In other Brentford news, it can be REVEALED that the club are plotting a £3million move to sign a forward from another Championship side.