Ammar Ramadan 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.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Raised voices on the training ground at Gil Vicente
It involved Martín Fernández, it was loud enough to reach the car park, and it was over by lunch. Dressing rooms run hot; the ones that should worry you are the silent ones.
Murilo Souza 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.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Buatu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.29 — 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.
Something was said to Murilo Souza and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gil Vicente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 The request is on a desk at Gil Vicente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Buatu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Estrela da Amadora spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew 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 Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Gil Vicente can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gil Vicente can pretend not to have heard.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Ammar Ramadan 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 Jonathan Buatu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gil Vicente told Chris Ramos something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gil Vicente, 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 Gil Vicente. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Tidjany Touré 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.
Ammar Ramadan 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Buatu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gil Vicente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mahmut Topcu after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“54 caps was 54 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 34 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Gil Vicente.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Gil Vicente, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gil Vicente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gil Martins did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the 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 Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 goals in one match, Carlos Eduardo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Gil Vicente and Felgueiras.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Buatu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Carlos Eduardo at his very best
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gil Vicente can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Héctor Hernández reports back to Gil Vicente with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Gui Negão, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Ammar Ramadan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Porto have kept their man, and Gil Vicente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Grazer AK had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergio Bermejo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gil Vicente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from Atlético CP for Agustín Moreira 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 6.92 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” São João de Ver had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Pacos de Ferreira for Ammar Ramadan 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.
LOSC Lille paid $7.0M and Gil Vicente took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Oumar Camara has gone, the accounts have $7.0M 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Buatu 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gil Vicente can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Gil Vicente have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The phone has started ringing about Facundo Cáseres again, and this time the name on the line is Amora. Gil Vicente are listening politely and promising nothing.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Gil Vicente can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ammar Ramadan 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 Jonathan Buatu 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. Porto have kept their man, and Gil Vicente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Gil Vicente are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
The offer from Marco 09 for Jonathan Buatu 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 name of Sergio Bermejo has come up in conversations Gil Vicente were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Buatu 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 have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Gil Vicente know it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Héctor Hernández has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gil Vicente can pretend not to have heard.
Ammar Ramadan 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.
Add another name to the list: 1º Dezembro have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Martín Fernández. The answer from Gil Vicente has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Buatu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gil Vicente, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gil Vicente can pretend not to have heard.
Gil Vicente offered $2.9M; Penafiel 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.
Add another name to the list: Torreense have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Joelson Fernandes. The answer from Gil Vicente has not changed — yet.
Facundo Cáseres 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 Jonathan Buatu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Gil Vicente asked and Porto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gil Vicente, another week without a signature from Samuel Portugal.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Lucas Teixeira clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” BATE had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
The offer went to Penafiel 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 name of Jonathan Buatu has come up in conversations Gil Vicente were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gil Vicente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The offer from Marco 09 for Jonathan Buatu 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.
“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 Gil Vicente, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gil Vicente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Buatu 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.
Gil Vicente asked and Porto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and 1º Dezembro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Gil Vicente is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Add another name to the list: Pacos de Ferreira have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Roko Baturina. The answer from Gil Vicente has not changed — yet.
Ammar Ramadan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benfica have kept their man, and Gil Vicente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Gil Vicente, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Marco 09 for Pedro Sanca 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Murilo Souza wants continental football; whether Gil Vicente can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Buatu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlos Eduardo and Gil Vicente agree another 4 years.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gil Vicente, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente 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 Jonathan Buatu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gil Vicente can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at Gil Vicente 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 Gil Vicente, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Sanca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gil Vicente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ammar Ramadan 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 in 7 games at Volta Redonda — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gil Vicente updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gil Vicente, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Murilo Souza was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I did not go to São João de Ver to sit and watch. I want to come back to Gil Vicente and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 37 matches say the rest.
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 Gil Vicente that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Gil Vicente. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Facundo Cáseres has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“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 Gil Vicente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ammar Ramadan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Buatu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gil Vicente told Gabriel Índio something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Gil Vicente 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gil Vicente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ammar Ramadan 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Buatu 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: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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 0‑3 Lucas Teixeira left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
Looking aheadGil Vicente take on the side everybody is chasing
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Facundo Cáseres scored, was marked 7.87, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Ammar Ramadan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I did not go to São João de Ver to sit and watch. I want to come back to Gil Vicente and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 33 matches say the rest.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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.” Lucas Teixeira kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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 Gil Vicente will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Ammar Ramadan
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gui Negão did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Diogo Prioste, marked 7.97, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Gil Vicente can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Gil Vicente and Alverca in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gil Vicente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ammar Ramadan 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Buatu 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 have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Gil Vicente know it.
Nobody at Gil Vicente 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.
“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 Gil Vicente, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gil Vicente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gil Vicente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Buatu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to São João de Ver to sit and watch. I want to come back to Gil Vicente and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 27 matches say the rest.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The loan was meant to give him football. 2 games and 0 goals later he is back at Gil Vicente no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Ammar Ramadan 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.
7 goals in one match, Ammar Ramadan on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Gil Vicente and Benfica.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Buatu 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.50, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Nobody left the Gil Vicente dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Buatu 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
9 combined actions and 6.57. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Facundo Cáseres had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
Portimonense have accepted the money. What Gil Vicente do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Sanca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gil Vicente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atalanta keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Santa Clara will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Gil Vicente were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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 Gil Vicente, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Amarante for Jonathan Buatu 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Gil Vicente asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Marked 8.40 — 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gil Vicente can pretend not to have heard.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gil Vicente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Marvin Elimbi 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Add another name to the list: Académica have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Antonio Espigares. The answer from Gil Vicente has not changed — yet.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. José Silva did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 7.84 for the rest of 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 Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. José Silva 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gil Vicente can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Gil Vicente people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Leganés moved on, Antonio Espigares reports back to Gil Vicente, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Add another name to the list: Lecco have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Oumar Camara. The answer from Gil Vicente has not changed — yet.
Murilo Souza 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Gil Vicente 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ricardo Esgaio is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“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 Gil Vicente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tondela paid $870.0K and Gil Vicente took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Zé Carlos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Gil Vicente and Nacional in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Gil Vicente asked and Flamengo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.