7 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.
Gil Vicente asked and Varzim said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Olívio Tomé 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.
9 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
“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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Gil Vicente, and it is not being withdrawn.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 chase for Janico ended with $590.0K changing hands and Trofense out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
Add another name to the list: Académica have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sergio Bermejo. The answer from Gil Vicente has not changed — yet.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Gil Vicente
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
“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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Gil Vicente can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Zé Carlos 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Paya Pichkah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Carlos Eduardo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gil Vicente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Andreas Lausen has his answer from Gil Vicente; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gil Vicente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Josh Keeley was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $18.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
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.
Braga paid $110.0K 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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 offer went to Luton Town 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.
“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.
Gil Vicente offered $3.8M; West Ham United 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.
The phone has started ringing about Jonathan Buatu again, and this time the name on the line is Marco 09. Gil Vicente are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sporting CP have kept their man, and Gil Vicente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paya Pichkah 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
SquadGil Vicente are still strangers to each other
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.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gil Vicente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from 1º Dezembro for Martín Fernández 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.
Martín Fernández 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.
$62.0K was the most the club would pay and Trofense were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
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.
“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 words a physio says slowly. 45 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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.
Gil Vicente have gone to West Ham United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The fee is $970.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Leiria drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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.
Santa Clara 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.
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.
The fee is $92.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Trofense drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Varzim wanted more than $81.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Paya Pichkah 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Trofense; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $344.9K — a club that wants Iseppe enough to be asked twice.
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.
$310.0K was the most the club would pay and Nacional were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer from 1º Dezembro for Martín Fernández 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.
“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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Paya Pichkah has, at Gil Vicente, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Casa Pia have kept their man, and Gil Vicente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $89.0K — a club that wants Daniel Benchimol enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Nacional 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.
Zé Carlos 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.
Santa Clara paid $850.0K 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Gil Vicente can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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.
Gil Vicente have gone to Sporting CP with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Gil Vicente asked and Sporting CP 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, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergio Bermejo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gil Vicente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“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.
In brief
SquadWords at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
The dugoutMurilo Souza loses the manager who believed in 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.
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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Samuel Portugal has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
In brief
SquadSamuel Portugal is training like a man with a point to make
“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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Gil Vicente have had the benefit of it.
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.
“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.
Squad15 May 2028
Murilo Souza 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tidjany Touré trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Gil Vicente would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
“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.
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.
Sergio Barcia 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Murilo Souza 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 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.
“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.
“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.
Sergio Barcia 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 May 2028
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.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Gil Vicente had all but put away. Porto will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“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 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.
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.
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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Murilo Souza 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.
“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.
Zé Carlos 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Murilo Souza 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Vitoria Guimaraes left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Mahmut Topcu to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
“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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Iliyas Äbil has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Sergio Barcia 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.
“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 words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
“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.
Sergio Barcia 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Murilo Souza 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.
Marked 6.76 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“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.
“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 words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Sergio Barcia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Murilo Souza 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gil Vicente told Luis Quintero 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.
Estoril Praia 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.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Gil Vicente could ask drops and the wages Jonathan Buatu can ask rise.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gil Vicente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jonathan Buatu has his answer from Gil Vicente; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gil Vicente told Sergio Barcia something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
SquadGil Vicente are still strangers to each other
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.
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.
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.
Sergio Barcia 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Murilo Souza 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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.
Zé Carlos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Murilo Souza 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.46, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
1 for Weverson, marked 7.08, 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.
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.
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.
Minute 90, against Estrela da Amadora, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Sergio Barcia
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Carlos Eduardo wants continental football; whether Gil Vicente can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Murilo Souza 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 year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Gil Vicente would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
The dugoutGabriel Índio asks for a word with the manager
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.
Sergio Barcia 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Martín Fernández 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 Murilo Souza 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.
“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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gil Vicente told Carlos Eduardo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
SquadGil Vicente are still strangers to each other
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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 ratings7 Feb 2028
A brace, and Murilo Souza takes the afternoon — 8.28
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Murilo Souza provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Gil Vicente close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Sergio Barcia 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 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. Oliveirense have kept their man, and Gil Vicente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Gil Vicente will try again when the window opens; Penafiel may not be selling by then.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gil Vicente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
$500.0K settles it between the clubs for Mario Rivas
Penafiel 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Benfica is saying, and nobody at Gil Vicente is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Marked 6.73 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Murilo Souza 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.
Gil Vicente asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gil Vicente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Zé Carlos 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.
Gil Vicente asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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 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.
The chase for Khalid Hachadi ended with $310.0K changing hands and Pacos de Ferreira out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The fee is $310.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Mafra drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Khalid Hachadi is living that version at Gil Vicente, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gil Vicente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Braga for Samuel Portugal 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.
“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.
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.
Zé Carlos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zé Carlos 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.
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
7 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 words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
“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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kacper Pasiek has just signed for Gil Vicente, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gil Vicente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Porto, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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.
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.
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 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.
Position 9, 21 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Independiente Rivadavia arrived with $12.6M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gil Vicente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ammar Ramadan has gone, the accounts have $12.6M 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.
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.
“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.
Zé Carlos 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.
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zé Carlos 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.
“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.
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.
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.
The medical room confirms 28 days on the sidelines for Iliyas Äbil, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout13 Dec 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.” Mahmut Topcu kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tidjany Touré trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Braga 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.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ricardo Esgaio and Gil Vicente agree another 2 years.
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 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.
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.
“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 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.
12 combined actions and 6.44. 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gabriel Índio commits to Gil Vicente for another 4 years.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Mahmut Topcu to a room that had heard them before.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
“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 and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mahmut Topcu on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
11 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
In brief
The dugoutChris Ramos unhappy with how he is being used
“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.
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 Nov 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Nothing was announced, because nothing ever is. The team sheet simply stopped looking the way it did, 2 matches ago, and it has not looked that way since. Every supporter noticed in the same week and none of them were told.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Zé Carlos’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gil Vicente needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
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.
Marked 7.02 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
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 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 Ammar Ramadan reports back to Gil Vicente with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Gil Vicente close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 17 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“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.
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.
Gil Vicente asked and PSV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
7.95, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Paulo Miranda has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“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.
“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 1º Dezembro for Martín Fernández 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.
Felgueiras paid $3.7M 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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
The phone has started ringing about Facundo Cáseres again, and this time the name on the line is Atlético CP. Gil Vicente are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 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 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.
Gil Vicente asked and Cagliari 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 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.
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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 35 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“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.
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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Zé Carlos is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout3 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Lucas Teixeira chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gui Negão did not need any: 7.62, 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.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Moreirense had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gil Vicente told Gui Negão something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Diogo Prioste was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Oumar Camara will call it something else in private.
A 1‑1 draw with Tondela leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Lucas Teixeira chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad22 Mar 2027
João Castro 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.
In brief
The dugoutLucão is still being punished for one mistake
Player ratingsMurilo Souza beats them one at a time
“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.
1 for Facundo Cáseres, marked 7.95, 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.
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.
“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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Facundo Cáseres. 1‑0 against AVS, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Paulo Barbosa has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hugo Machado has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Leonardo Goncalves has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Gil Vicente ran out of time with Portimonense. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“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.
“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 name of Facundo Cáseres has come up in conversations Gil Vicente were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The deal with Atalanta is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahly keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
“I watch every Gil Vicente game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lusitano Évora runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Ammar Ramadan
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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Mo Dauda has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Gil Vicente have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Gil Vicente have made the call to Atalanta. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Lucas Teixeira after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gabriel Índio
The dugoutOumar Camara knocks on the manager's door
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.
0‑4 to Porto, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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.
5 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.
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.
Half the programme played, position 12, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
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.
0‑3 to Braga, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The name of Facundo Cáseres has come up in conversations Gil Vicente were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Gil Vicente can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Gil Vicente can tell you which week it ends in.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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 0‑2 Lucas Teixeira left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“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 14 matches say the rest.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gabriel Índio has just signed for Gil Vicente, and for once the answer mattered.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.83, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“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 14 say he has earned the hearing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 8.04 — 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Lucas Teixeira could afford to be generous.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“I watch every Gil Vicente game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at São João de Ver runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
9 combined actions and 6.58. 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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
0‑3 against AVS, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
A cup hiding at AVS leaves Gil Vicente explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
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.
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.
“I watch every Gil Vicente game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lusitano Évora runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Arouca were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Héctor Hernández. 1‑0 against Arouca, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
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.
At 19 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
0‑3 to Benfica, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Zé Carlos 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.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Lucas Teixeira to a room that had heard them before.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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.
“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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Diogo Prioste’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gil Vicente needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
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.
1 for Facundo Cáseres, marked 7.68, 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.
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.
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.
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.
8 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.
“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.
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.
7.99, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Lucas Teixeira after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutRoko Baturina knocks on the manager’s door