Ghalenoei Returns to Factory Settings: How Naive We Were, Amir Khan!

Amir Ghalenoei responded to critics in a lengthy interview yesterday.

Sefer Satari; Less than 3 months before Iran's first match in the Asian Nations Cup against China, Amir Qalanoui, the head coach of the national team, spoke about various issues in a television interview yesterday. Ghalenoui, who had faced criticism after a failed fifadi and defeat against Uzbekistan and Russia, and there were even rumors of his dismissal, has extended his contract with the Football Federation until the end of the Asian Nations Cup and is still on the bench of the national team. In a TV interview, he has responded to the recent criticisms about his performance in the national team.

I did not promise to win the championship and advance to the finals!

One of the important points of Amir Qalanoui's interview is his talk about the promise of advancing to the finals of the Asian Nations Cup. In this regard, he said: "Not one loved one spoke at all, and I said that we have these problems and whoever can come will take the team to the semi-finals and finals, God willing." All of these are loved ones, and ask if the smallest word has been said about this or not? We gave a report and I talked for 10 minutes. Mr. Karimi is our friend and he was one of those who confirmed one of our points."

While denying the promise of advancing to the finals of the Asian Nations Cup, while renewing the contract, it was heard that the national team's advancement to the finals of the Asian Nations Cup was raised as one of the main conditions. On the other hand, the mention of such words by the head coach of the national team on the eve of the Asian Nations Cup shows that Qalanewi intends to lower the expectations of his team from now on in order to make achievements for himself in the event of a possible promotion to the semi-finals, such as elimination from the group stage of the World Cup!

The Iranian national team has reached the semi-finals of the Asian Nations Cup in the last 2 rounds, and even in the previous round, they could have reached the finals by winning against Qatar. In the meantime, there is a serious criticism of the performance of the Football Federation's Board of Directors that why these issues have not been examined in detail in the meetings to review the performance of the head coach of the national team. Qalanewi even claimed that the board members did not ask him any questions after presenting the report and he left the meeting. The issue that the members of the board of directors themselves should clarify about, so that it is clear what really happened in the meetings to review the performance of the national team and Amir Qalanewi.

The absence of Mehdi Qaidi in the recent list of the national team caused a lot of controversy and many people related it to the interview of this player after the World Cup. In his interview, Qaidi mentioned Farhad Majidi and Andrea Stramachoni as the best coaches during his playing days and did not mention Qalanoui. After this interview and Qaidi's withdrawal from the national team, critics believed that the reason for this player's absence was not technical. An issue that Qalanewi rejected. Qalanoui announced the reason for Qaidi's absence from the national team list is the unpreparedness of this player, but he made a strange mistake in part of his talk about this player.

Ghalenoui said that when Qaidi won the championship with Esteghlal, he was not in the national team list, which is a wrong fact. Qaidi was not a member of this team at the time of the last championship of Esteghlal and played for Shabab Al-Ahli of the Emirates, which did not perform well that season.

However, in the Asian Nations Cup, despite his high preparation and scoring in the first 2 games, Qaidi did not get much chance to play in the elimination stage, and even against Qatar in the semi-finals, when the national team needed a goal, he was on the bench for 90 minutes. Of course, despite his absence in the important matches of the national team, Qaidi was also included in the selected team of the Asian Nations Cup due to his brilliance in the group stage! Qaidi played only 45 minutes in the 2026 World Cup, and Ghalenoui preferred other players to him against Belgium and Egypt, and it seems that, contrary to these words, he does not have much faith in this player.

On the other hand, if Qaidi was not invited due to sitting on the bench in Nasr, then how come Amirhossein Mahmoudi, who played only 26 minutes for Persepolis this season, is still on Qalanewi's list and Alireza Jahanbakhsh is going to the World Cup after sitting on the bench in the last team of Belgium? Does the technical criteria of the head coach of the national team change depending on each player, or did he not tell the whole story about not inviting Qaidi?

Attacking critics again with duplicate keywords

In a situation where the Iranian national team is in serious need of peace on the eve of the Asian Nations Cup, Amir Qalanoui has again attacked the critics and especially Adel Ferdosipour in his recent interview. The head coach of the national team, who demanded the closure of Ferdowsipour's program some time ago, spoke against him again and answered the criticism of this host. He, who complained to Adel Ferdosipour about his words after the filtering of the 360 ​​football site, has once again entered into a war and challenge with this presenter.

Qalanoui has attacked his critics again, as he had said other things in an interview 2 weeks ago. After the defeat against Uzbekistan and Russia, the head coach of the national team took a defensive and calm stance against criticism, but now that the discussion of his separation from the national team has been ruled out and he will be present at least until the next Fifa, he has returned to the fast pace of the World Cup.

This is a part of a previous interview of Ghalenoui, which has nothing in common with his recent harsh words against critics: "Part of the criticism is completely justified. I would be lying if I said everything was fine. We have to accept that we need to improve some technical issues, team cohesion and decisions. I say this as the head of the technical staff, but there is a difference between admitting a mistake and giving up. "My responsibility is to go through this stage and build a team that when people see it, they will again feel that this is the Iranian national team that can fight for great goals."

The head coach of the national team, who in recent years has repeatedly talked about expressions such as "childish mistake" and "personal mistake" in his interviews, in this interview also threw the ball into the players' court and claimed that they are far from the necessary preparation. While he spoke about the difference in the preparation of the players in the European leagues with the UAE, people like Sardar Azmoun, Mehdi Tarimi, Saeed Ezzatullahi and Mohammad Ghorbani are present in this country and indirectly questioned them.

The head coach of the national team also said that Biranvand was not ready and went to the field against Uzbekistan on his own insistence. Of course, while talking about the difference in the level of European and Asian legionnaires, Ghalenoui has not shown much luck in inviting some legionnaires in European football in recent years.

Change in assistants? It is not necessary at all!

Ghalenoui, who in his previous interview said about the need to reform, change and rebuild the national team, in a 180 degree turn claimed that the situation of the technical staff is very good. In response to the change of assistants, he said: "No, why should we have a change?" I testify to God that I explained and spoke for 10 minutes at the board meeting, but no one asked a single question, and I presented my report and technical explanation to Taj, and after that I should not have stayed in the meeting anymore and left."

It is said that the change of assistants was one of the serious conditions of the Football Federation's Board of Directors for continuing cooperation with Qalanewi, but it seems that this head coach has completely denied this issue after his presence in the national team was confirmed and plans to continue his work with the same people as before.

Even Mehdi Taj, the head of the Football Federation, has recently spoken about this. He said in a TV interview about Qalanewi's assistants: "It is not easy to attract a foreign coach in the current situation, but the negotiations to bring in a foreign assistant are continuing and Qalanewi is also following up on this matter. In my opinion, Ghalenoui will change 30 to 40% of the players of the national team and will also make changes in the technical staff. "We will definitely have changes in Qalanewi's assistants and probably a good foreign coach will be added to the national team's technical staff."

Currently, it seems that the situation is such that Ghalenoui even violates the words of the president of the Football Federation and intends to go to the Asian Nations Cup with the same technical staff that was criticized before. The recent interview of Qalanoi proved more than anything that his previous words about changing and rebuilding the national team and the head coach's soft approach to critics were just an attempt to calm the atmosphere, and in this interview he again became the same Amir who has been sitting on the bench of the national team for the last 4 years. In fact, if someone hopes that the national team is really going to change after reading the previous interview of Qalanewi, after reading the new interview, he will understand how simple it was!