Ever the popular Twitter-teaser, Merritt Paulson certainly didn't disappoint with his latest 140-character spiel. According to Paulson an announcement for a Designated Player, a deal regarding Jose Adolfo Valencia (aka El Trencito) and a new trade will all be done this week at some point.
Here was his exact tweet:
Caleb is at 10:30AM PST today; our new DP will be announced later this week; Trencito also will be completed in 24 hrs; trade as well.
According to Merritt Paulson via Twitter, the Portland Thorns FC NWSL team already has over 2,000 season ticket deposits after only being available for a few weeks. This number includes people who have deposited the $25 fee to reserve their tickets as well as Portland Timbers season ticket holders who have registered their interest.
Merritt Paulson took to Twitter this morning and shared with us something a little interesting. Here it is:
Always disappointing when deals that were done fall apart. Crazy biz but that's the biz we are in. Next option may make more sense anyway.
While he's not naming names, based on last week's hot rumor of Caleb Porter pursuing Mix Diskerud, Mix's agent/father confirming Porter's interest and Paulson, himself, having been following Mix on Twitter it should be pretty easy to surmise that this tweet is in reference to this deal.
As Ryan Gates reported yesterday, numerous reports have come out in recent days concerning Portland's involvement in a new US women's professional soccer league. And late last night, Merritt Paulson confirmed the speculation with a simple "Yes," via DM on Twitter.
The Portland Timbers released a statement from Paulson this morning, officially confirming the reports.
Just a couple interesting tid-bits that came out of a recent interview with Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson. Bloomberg got him to discuss what the future holds for expansion fees into MLS and other items.
Here are some of the highlights below.
Expansion fees:
"The last team, inMontreal, went for $40 million," Paulson 39, said in an interview this month in London.
Whether he likes it or not, Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson has become one of the most interesting figures in Major League Soccer.
In the last couple of months, he has used Twitter to feud with Eric Wynalda, argue with journalists, lash out at fans who criticize general manager and interim coach Gavin Wilkinson and rant against poor officiating.
With the international break this weekend I thought this would be a good time to take a closer
look at the Portland Timbers' new coach, Caleb Porter. Before we knew for certain Caleb Porter was
going to be the Portland Timbers' new head coach Gavin Wilkinson talked about the new coach. Here
is the quote:
Just an up and coming coach that has the potential to be one of the best in the league.
The Portland Timbers wanted Caleb Porter, and the second-year MLS club has reportedly gotten the
coach they set out to hire as their permanent replacement for John Spencer.
Portland radio station KPAM 860 reported on Tuesday night that Portland would announce Porter as
the team's new head coach on Wednesday.
Good news for those of you who might have been dreading a possible annual rate increase in your
beloved Portland Timbers season ticket package as the FO just sent out a press release announcing
that the price you paid last year will be the price you pay later this year.
I think this goes without saying, but after struggling all season long and going through many a
difficulty on and off the field, this is probably one of the smartest things they could have
done.
I want to open this up with saying I don't like the idea of this move at all, for either
side.
OregonLive.com is reporting this morning that the Portland Timbers are set to offer their head
coaching position to Akron head coach and US U-23 national team head coach Caleb Porter.
The Portland Timbers have offered their head coaching job to University of Akron coach Caleb
Porter, according to sources.
This will more than likely be correct, as signs have been pointing to Caleb Porter being the
lead candidate for the job, but we're still calling it a rumor. Here is what we know right now.
There was a tweet a week ago from Steven Goff, which broke the news that Porter and the Portland
Timbers were in talks:
Getting word Timbers and Akron/U23 coach Caleb Porter like one another.
The Portland Timbers held an open practice today at Jeld-Wen Field after Saturday's 1-0 loss to
Chivas USA. Practice was active with the team splitting off into three groups doing fitness work
and two short fielded games. The first half of practice was run by Gavin Wilkinson while Sean
McAuley, the team's new assistant coach, took the second half.
Here are all quotes from the gutting loss to Chivas USA.
Quotes
Portland Timbers Quotes
Timbers general manager/interim head coach Gavin Wilkinson
On scoring chances in the first half:
"I think we had a lot of chances in the second half, as well. We could have scored three, I think,
in the first half.
"What is there to say? Humiliated. We quit tonight. Yes, the conditions are difficult, but we
said no excuses. Merritt [Paulson] put me in the position to find out more about the players and to
actually get to the bottom of a few things and right now we're trying to fix a few broken things
and it showed tonight.
Recent front office moves, (Portland firing John Spencer, DCU gaining new ownership) have
created public communication from the teams from front offices where the word "brand" has been used
to refer to the entity. For example, instead of Portland Timbers "club," it was referred to by
Merritt Paulson in his presser this week as the Portland Timbers "brand.
Yesterday was a watershed day for the Portland Timbers, one of those key moments in the team's
history that will stick with fans for many years. Though nobody seemed shocked by Merritt Paulson's
decision to fire John Spencer, the first coach of the Timbers' MLS era, certainly the timing of the
decision was a surprise.
MLS has claimed its third head-coaching casualty of the year, and it is the Portland Timbers'
John Spencer.
Spencer has been shown the exit door in Portland after a disappointing first half of the 2012
season that has the 5-8-4 Timbers in second-to-last place in the Western Conferece.
We all knew it was going to happen since this morning, but the 2:30 press conference made it
official: the Portland Timbers have fired John Spencer, the team's first coach of the MLS era.
Gavin Wilkinson will serve as interim coach until the end of the season. Club owner Merritt Paulson
and General Manager, Technical Director and Interim Head Coach Gavin Wilkinson made the
announcement jointly at Jeld Wen Field today.
The Portland Timbers have fired head coach John Spencer, owner Merritt Paulson announced during
a Monday press conference. Current GM Gavin Wilkinson will take over the head coaching duties, but
Paulson made it clear that it would be in the interim only. Paulson said a permanent replacement
will likely be announced during the offseason and that the team has identified 10 possible
candidates so far.
A few minutes ago I received an email from the Portland Timbers front office stating that there
will be a press conference held at 2:30pm today with owner and president Merritt Paulson. Neither
Gavin Wilkinson, nor John Spencer are going to be there. We don't know anything more than this, but
we can definitely speculate.
So far this season we have already seen two different coaches sent packing for under-performing
during the first third of the season. First Aron Winter was let go for Toronto FC's staggeringly
awful start to the season and now, as of just few minutes ago, we saw the Philadelphia Union give
Peter Nowak the boot after some incredibly questionable moves on and off the field throughout the
season and a disappointing start to the season for a team that made the play-offs last year.
The Philadelphia Union have traded Danny Mwanga for Jorge Perlaza of the Portland Timbers.
Mwanga moved to the United States in 2006 and attended high school in Portland before playing at
Oregon State for a year. The 20-year-old was drafted first overall in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft,
becoming the Union's first ever draft selection.
Pollyanna had a hand in writing this one. You know, the girl with the constant optimism? Over
the last 6 weeks I have been pretty much depressed every Saturday night, except for the week of the
Sporting KC Game. However with the help of the community here I got through it and now I want to
help everyone else.
Welcome to the big show, Caleb. Merritt Paulson has the attention span of Bobcat Goldthwait, so it
only makes sense that those Twitter lambastings about Gavin Wilkinson finally sunk in. And here we
have Caleb Porter, he of recent U23 failure. Welcome to MLS our newest coach and Portland's third
since joining MLS.
After a busy weekend that saw both the Timbers first team and reserves play at Jeld-Wen Field,
the Timbers held a short practice session at their Beaverton training facility this morning. With
all the furor around the possible announcement of a new head coach this week and this morning's
announcement about the lack of a raise in season ticket prices, team owner Merritt Paulson was at
practice and spoke to the press despite being in obvious discomfort due to a herniated disc.
When Portland started their coaching search after being let go Merritt Paulson and Gavin
Wilkinson were not expecting a decision to be made until sometime in the offseason. Things have
progressed rapidly since then and there is a ver real possibility of an announcement coming as
early as September.
There has been a lot of talk about Merritt Paulson and affecting the team. People have compared
him to Paul Allen and other more hands-on owners. I don't think the comparison to Paul Allen is
apt, as there are a lot of differences between Paul and MP -- I would say MP is the Mark Cuban of
MLS.
Mark Cuban, as many of us know, is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA.
In a season where MLS managers are increasingly and appropriately help more accountable by the
front office, John Spencer becomes the latest casualty of the trend.
Spencer, 16-22-13 in almost a year and half at the helm of the Timbers, seemed to have run out
of ideas in jumpstarting the Timbers this year.
Twitter is all ablaze after Merritt Paulson tweeted a new RB will be added to the Timbers Roster
VIA trade. Mike Donovan (@themikedonovan) then tweeted this:
My random guess is Kosuke Kimura
Which MP replied to Mike Donovan with:
@TheMikeDonovan I'd say your guess was a good one
Now MP has sent out this tweet:
New right back arrived at training and none of our players from earlier this week are now
"former Timbers" ;)
Not Timbers related, but once again a reminder of how thankful we should be about having an
owner like Merritt Paulson and not some distant conglomeration.
Yesterday we had our venting thread. And it went fairly well! More people commented than I
expected, in fact, which just goes to show that there really is a lot of pent up frustration over
what's happening, or has happened with the current team and even the Timbers Army. Everybody is
unhappy right now, that's pretty obvious, but now that we've gotten most stuff out in the open it's
time to return to supporting the team 100%, no matter who is playing on the field, no matter who is
coaching the team.
In their last training session before flying to LA to take on the Galaxy tomorrow, the Timbers
found themselves in the middle of a much more busy training facility that normal. With the usual
practice taking place alongside a Tualatin Hills United Soccer Club tournament and a tour for
sponsors of the team, the atmosphere around the Timbers training facility was much more lively that
normal.
Today's closed practice at the Timbers training center saw the introduction of forward Danny
Mwanga to the team. Mwanga took part in the full practice and was mobbed by the press
afterward.
Once again Eric Brunner was not at practice as he continues to recover from a concussion
suffered against Vancouver.
Merritt Paulson appeared on The Best Soccer Show this week to talk about the Timbers' preseason and other matters. Paulson was especially enlightening when talking about the off-season rumors connecting the Timbers to Mikkel Diskerud.
Paulson confirmed that the Timbers had been targeting Diskerud and that he was interested in coming to Portland because of his relationship with Caleb Porter, his coach during Olympic qualifying.
