Marked for Weverson
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Maritimo, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match28 Oct 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Gil Vicente scored in the 99th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Market2 Nov 2026
Weverson hands in a written request
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Marvin Elimbi delivers — 7.95
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Marvin Elimbi scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Facundo Cáseres ran the middle of the pitch — 6.96
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 16 combined actions and a mark of 6.96, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Paredes to sit and watch. I want to come back to Gil Vicente and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Marvin Elimbi 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Arouca made Gil Vicente work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 8.20 — 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.
In brief
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Squad
Weverson in a row with a teammate
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Player ratings
The afternoon ran through Tidjany Touré
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
38 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Weverson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Kaba and Gil Vicente agree another 3 years.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Carlos Eduardo is on it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Diogo Prioste asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Benfica next, and one man in the Gil Vicente dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
The goals keep arriving from Roko Baturina’s exile
3 goals in 6 games at HNK Vukovar 1991 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gil Vicente updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market5 Oct 2026
Weverson puts it in writing
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Marvin Elimbi 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
José Silva is a better footballer than he was
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.
Match4 Oct 2026
Three points for Gil Vicente, 2‑0 the final word against Sporting CP in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Murilo Souza was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Gil Vicente
7 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.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“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 Gil Vicente, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ricardo Esgaio, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Murilo Souza named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Murilo Souza is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
Marvin Elimbi hands in a written request
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market7 Sep 2026
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at Gil Vicente 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Weverson reports back to Gil Vicente with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
No deal for Kaíque Rocha at that price
Gil Vicente offered $400.0K; Casa Pia 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Gil Vicente asked and Benfica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ricardo Esgaio slips down the pecking order
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Nacional, and it could have been more.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ibiza waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Gil Vicente is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad31 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Weverson had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $411.6K — a club that wants Kaíque Rocha enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The offer went to Casa Pia 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The offer went to Estrela da Amadora 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$13.0M on the table at Porto. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” CSKA 1948 had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Zé Welison would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Zé Welison is living that version at Gil Vicente, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market10 Aug 2026
Santa Clara come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Gil Vicente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $14.0M — a club that wants Nehuén Pérez enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on Gui Negão
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gil Vicente have done the hard part with Corinthians, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Santi García and Gil Vicente agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Santi García and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.