Willians

Defensive Midfielder - Fafe
18 Nov 2027
Thursday
Process

Marked for Willians

58 Edition

The Fafe Gazette

6 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Da Silva damages knee ligaments — 56 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 56 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.

The dugout

Mateo Flores says Fafe went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 18 in, 6 out at Fafe

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Squad

Nacho Monsalve signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nacho Monsalve and Fafe agree another 2 years.

Squad

A row about effort at Fafe

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateus Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Bautista Fernández

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Market

Fafe and Miguel Lopes are talking past each other

“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.

Squad

Charlie Osborne wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fafe can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

Market

Willians told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Willians has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Fafe.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager has not finished forgetting Luizão's mistake
  • Looking ahead Fafe take on the side everybody is chasing
  • Looking ahead A reunion for Francisco Cardoso
Back issues
18 Edition

The Fafe Gazette

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

23 days out for Diogo Castro after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fafe will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Fafe

The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

Tempers go at Fafe

Pedro Oliveira 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.

Squad

Nuno Macedo 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.

Player ratings

Gonçalo Cunha was the difference for Fafe

Marked 7.48. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

Boardroom

89% of the income goes out in wages at Fafe

Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Paulo Filho

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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Willians

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

Afonso Santos: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

In brief