Merritt Paulson to Hold Press Conference Today at 2:30pm; John Spencer Will Not Be There [UPDATED]

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.

It's been no secret that Paulson isn't happy with how the Portland Timbers have performed of late. After a fairly good first season in MLS, the expectations for the Timbers were quite high in their second season. So high, in fact, that Merritt authorized the FO to go out and spend a lot of money on a star striker in Kris Boyd to really seal the deal for the season. Fast forward a few months and things are not quite right.

I'll be blunt. While I have no sources telling me as such, this likely means that John Spencer is out in the FO. Gavin Wilkinson might be as well, although that remains to be seen. Fact is, we saw something eerily similar happen just a few short weeks ago in Philadelphia and the likelihood Merritt is just having a sit down for giggles is incredibly unlikely.

We'll have more as soon as the press conference is over. Stay tuned, but feel free to speculate here.

UPDATE: The Oregonian is reporting Spencer is definitely out.

UPDATE 2: Geoffrey C. Arnold of the Oregonian is reporting that Gavin Wilkinson will take over as interim head coach. Oh boy...