The GW Saga: Why it depresses me

by xarker on Aug 20, 2025 7:28 PM PDT

So how did your day begin? Mine began with Merritt Paulson's Twitterstream, his reference to the "GW out mob" and

his mood-killing statement that "GW isn't going anywhere."

Here's why the whole saga bothers me so much, and it's only partially about football.

I'm a middle-aged guy. Did my bit as a sergeant in the Army, had a nice career as a city editor at a mid-sized metro, worked as a consultant for a while. And here's the modern tragedy I've witnessed repeatedly throughout my adult life metastaticizing into a pointless confrontation between the Timbers FO and its remarkable fan base.

Whether it was the Army or the newsroom or the corporate boardroom, the worst organizational failures I've endured were all created by executives who ingratiated themselves to their key peers and higher-ups, created an intimate alternate reality that insulated them from the world the rest of us lived in, and then presided over the inevitable destruction of whatever good existed in the team or organization. These executives were clever and tough, but their primary skill was survival.

Here's how you can spot this situation, and it almost never fails. A manager who inspires little confidence in his employees or peers, yet inexplicably rises above his portfolio. When things begin to fall apart, he dramatically insists on holding his subordinates accountable for the organization's failures, and when that leads to their departures -- either by firing or fleeing -- he makes sure to insult them publicly.

Multiple failures create multiple crises, yet always the fault lies with someone else. And always the one ally he can rely upon is his patron. His boss.

The rest doesn't require an MBA to figure out. When you're in a leadership position and the team fails, you can only blame the team when it isn't your team. Once you've got your people in place and your program is the team program, then accountability doesn't stop with your subordinates. It should end with the boss.

If the players aren't the right players and the coach isn't the right coach, then logic would dictate that we should be focused on the person who acquired the players and hired the coach. Right?

Only in these situations, it doesn't happen. Because he's insulated from reality and accountability for reasons the rest of us cannot see.

I don't hate Gavin Wilkinson. I don't have grudges. I don't approve of people harassing other people in grocery stores. I think people should be civil to each other.

I'm not a mob. I just look at the facts and conclude that John Spencer, for all his flaws, was better at his job than Wilkinson is at his. It's a conclusion that doesn't require special soccer knowledge. Wilkinson would say the same thing if the topic were anyone but himself.

Now perhaps MP is right about GW. Perhaps GW has special talents and insights and character that the rest of us don't see yet, but will in time. I certainly hope that's true.

But I don't believe it. Believing that GW is a gifted soccer administrator assumes facts not in evidence.

It's not because I'm a hater.

It's because I've seen this movie. Like most Americans workers have seen this movie.

And I really, really hate the ending.

Alright guys, I don't believe I have to say this but, just in case, please do not submit anything racist, homophobic, sexist or otherwise not appropriate for even the younger Timbers fans.

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Well said

I’m not sure if Paulson has ever really dealt with reality and accountability in his life.

I am the Mystery Midfielder

by yepyou'reright on Aug 20, 2025 10:19 PM PDT via mobile reply actions 1 recs

I can't imagine his leash extends forever

The Timbers failing probably hurts a guy like Paulson a lot more than other owners and in ways that it perhaps shouldn’t. (That’s just the impression I get). If next year is the least bit like this one, GW won’t make it through. That’s my opinion, which anyone can feel free to dismiss on the grounds that it doesn’t give much consideration to the brainwash chamber GW keeps MP in.

It seems like Spencer had quite a voice/role in player acquisitions in the past. Probably will be as and likely more true of the new guy. Rest assured that if this team does get turned around with GW all credit will go to the new coach, and maybe he would deserve most of it, but not the 100% he’ll get.

I’d like a new GM, but unlike what seems like a vast majority right now, I don’t think having GW as a GM entirely precludes success—especially pending the coaching hire.

GW can do a lot to change his image with all the assets we’re going to have in place by sucking so soul-crushingly bad. Because he’s going to be here for that part of it regardless the number of hashtags (and renegade displays I’m certain we’ll see Saturday) I wish the masses would cool out a little bit.

Things will either get better or they will change. Maybe not on the timeline people would prefer. But that’s the truth, even in this situation brainwash chambers and all.

by almost awesome on Aug 20, 2025 10:50 PM PDT reply actions

im not sure...

“The Timbers failing probably hurts a guy like Paulson a lot more than other owners”

In their eyes, they aren’t failing. They’ve got a great plan and everything is going well. This year is just a minor setback, largely caused by Spencer’s “philosophical difference.” See, he was calling bs, and was therefore not on board, he’s dumber than them and unable to see how brilliant they are, as are we.

“Rest assured that if this team does get turned around with GW all credit will go to the new coach,”

I dont think so. If a new coach turns it around it will prove, at least in their eyes, that they are in fact, smarter than everyone else, that Spencer’s inability to put together GW’s pieces was the real problem.

look, ive experienced this mentality firsthand several times, and know exactly what the poster is talking about. this isn’t good. even after jeffrey skilling had destroyed thousands of jobs and retirement accounts, he sat there smugly in front of congress. he wasn’t the moron for doing what he did, they were morons for questioning him….that’s what we’re dealing with here. after mp’s treatment of the fans on sunday night, your post the other day is even more relevant. we heard from merritt. the real question isn’t whether you are a fan of the club, or rctid, but just how much of your family’s money do you want to transfer to merritt paulson?

by #1 Leverage Fan on Aug 21, 2025 5:47 AM PDT up reply actions

Spencer was calling BS?

On who? Himself?

by mccusk on Aug 25, 2025 10:34 AM PDT up reply actions

The differences

It’s hard not to see the TREMENDOUS differences in the style of play and the way we approach the idea of developing young players, since GW took over. It’s also hard not to notice the sudden progress of players like Songo’o and Nagbe.

Is the new style wrong for a winning future? I personally think it’s right, but time will tell—-it’s certainly a playing system that takes TIME to perfect.

But I HATED the pinball-style game we often played under Spencer. Would he have gotten things together, given more time and faith from up top? It’s hard to say, but what I CAN say for certain is that it’s hard, if not impossible, to identify the areas in which we’d made permanent progress.

It’s fair if the team was not getting on the winning track as fast as MP and GW preferred, BUT after 1.5 years, you have to be able to look at the team and say, OK, the results are still not where we want them, but in what smaller areas, besides wins and losses, has this team steadily improved? 1.5 years is MORE than enough time to show some results in that sense, and if there are no results to show at that conjecture, there IS a problem at the coaching level.

by TimberGreen on Aug 27, 2025 10:39 AM PDT up reply actions

We'll see MP Saturday with our shirts, banners and Idiot buttons.

This is not.going.away. Angry customers never do, until you do. xarker, thank you for the post. I have a similar business background, and cannot agree more. MP has nothing to lose, and we’ll eventually get a new owner who has actually built something with his/her own hands. Sad, because a Harvard MBA should equip you for this.

by timbersduane on Aug 22, 2025 8:56 PM PDT reply actions

The only way the Timbers will get a new owner is if and only if MP decides he wants to sell

And if you think he is going to make that decision based on t-shirts and twitter rants, you might want to beef up that business background.

by pdb on Aug 22, 2025 10:04 PM PDT up reply actions

Having long memories is going to just make it harder to see positive when it comes.

Jag kom, jag såg, erövrade jag.

by Kejsare on Aug 22, 2025 11:57 PM PDT up reply actions

It's very unfortunate

to see this attitude from the most committed fans. I’d urge fellow Timbers fans to be a little more patient—-to recognize that a HUGE shift in playing style and player development philosophy may mean that we have to get worse before we get better.

You expect Spencer to get at least two years, but want GW out after seven games, seeing a bad run after a HUGE reset as proof that he’s as bad as you think he is.

I don’t like the Perkins trade, or the “upgrade” comments either, but I value our playing style and development plan FAR MORE than media relations skills, and I see more to point to a clear direction in this sense, one that I think has tremendous potential, after 8 games, than I did after 1.5 years under Spencer, when I had NO IDEA what our system and playing philosophy was.

Regardless, I do appreciate you guys for caring. I’m a “waiting list” guy who only makes it to the occasional game right now (partly do to a 21-month-old with an early bed time, and my wife and I are religious about keeping him on a consistent sleep-schedule).

by TimberGreen on Aug 27, 2025 10:48 AM PDT up reply actions

ooops . . . finishing my last thought

You who are able to go to every game, I appreciate you guys, because it would be hard for me to do that right now——in a couple years, yes, but I’m glad there are enough die-hards who DO have the time and money to go to every game and keep this team selling out, even during a rough stretch.

by TimberGreen on Aug 27, 2025 10:49 AM PDT up reply actions

I'm a newer fan

So I don’t have the disdain for GW that many fans do. However, seeing how the Perkins trade came off, I can see why they don’t like him.

Still, when I look at GW, I don’t think he’s a bad guy. I see a person with some decent soccer smarts, some ability to identify talent, and a special talent for player development. And I see a new system of play that is better at developing players—Spencer’s system evolved steadily into something so rigid and regressive that no one could develop in it.

However, in GW, I also see a guy who has a penchant for making rash statements that alienate fans and veteran players who are nearing the end of their usefulness to the team’s direction.

I think that penchant for poor fan and player PR is what makes him so disliked, and why he’s not a long-term fit for permanent coach.

But ultimately, just like Roger Maris in NY back in the day, popular and effective are two different things.

When we hire a new coach, GW can duck back upstairs and out of the spotlight, and probably will be able to duck mostly out of the line of fire as well. I predict the new coach will play a more creative system than Spencer, will do a better job of developing our young players, and will show steady progress with the quality of play, and eventually our winning (shouldn’t be too hard, given our current run of results). And he’ll owe some to GW for laying the foundation and setting this team on that course, even in the face of angry fans who think we need to WIN NOW and don’t understand what we’re actually accomplishing during our current struggles.

Now, feel free to tear me to shreds—-I realize newer fans are not popular with some of the faithful. Say what you will—-I may be a new fan, but I’m not a fair weather fan, and see reason to be optimistic, even if we’re not winning much yet. If we’re still limping along in three years, than by all means, have at them—-I’ll be right there with you.

What I WILL say is that MP SHOULD apologize for his “idiots” comment. He needs to recognize the fact that the #GWOut crowd and the Timbers Army are not as separate as he’d like to believe, and yet, how valuable the Army is to the organization, regardless of whether or not their opinions are short-sighted or spot on. He needs to acknowledge that he insulted people he didn’t mean to insult and apologize to them.

Some fans will always be too quick to ask for someone’s head when the team is not living up to expecations, and MP needs to learn that reality and stay calm and think before he tweets, in those cases.

by TimberGreen on Aug 24, 2025 1:48 PM PDT reply actions

And I'd guess

that GW has learned something from the Spencer hire—-that just because a guy says he can run the system you want, doesn’t mean he’s actually good at doing it. More care will be taken in finding a guy whose experience and playing philosophy CLEARLY MATCHES the attacking, creative style that Paulson and Wilkinson expect, and have built much of the team around.

by TimberGreen on Aug 24, 2025 1:52 PM PDT up reply actions

His job is to get the best players to help the team. He sucks at his job.

We draft Dax McCarty. We trade him for Rodney Wallace. McCarty is playing at an all-star level in NY. Wallace barely gets off our bench, and looks awful when he does.

We draft Adam Moffat. He doesn’t get off our bench. We trade him for two of the worst players on our roster – Palmer and Chabala. Moffat becomes a lock-starter in Houston and helps the team turn their season around to make it to the MLS Cup, kicking our ass in one of the last games along the way.

Towards the end of last season, Nagbe, who was misused out wide for the better part of the year, is finally given the chance to do what made him the most exciting prospects coming out of college in years – play the set up forward role. He looks good. Not perfect, but promising. What do we do? We pay big money for a luxury forward we could not afford. A forward who now sits on our bench. We f#ck with Nagbe, pushing him out wide, trying to make a central midfielder out of him, etc. Finally, when the hope of a decent season is gone, we take that same promising prospect and play him where he belongs. What happens? He looks like a damn good prospect again! Who f#cking knew??

And all along, we get Captain Jack. One of the slowest central midfielders in the league. A nice guy – a guy who should be depth on our bench to help us out along the way. A smart player who knows his limitations. A veteran who should be locker room leadership. Instead, we make a mascot out of him.

The core of Gavin’s job is understanding what’s wrong with the team and aggressively looking for solutions to fix it. The sad comedy is that Gavin has addressed nearly every other position but our biggest need – central midfield. We sign forwards, we draft central defenders, we pick up other team’s left over outside backs. We do nothing to improve the core.

If this is leadership under Gavin, we are screwed.

by BrianDB on Aug 26, 2025 8:54 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs

Two words:

John Spencer.

I actually agree with so much of what you’ve said, but I believe GW is the guy who made the initial moves (bringing in McCarty, Moffat, Cooper), and John Spencer as the guy who felt he couldn’t use them in his system, leaving GW with no choice but to unload them. OK, it’s likely more complicated then those specifics, but I do think it is abundantly clear that GW tried to work with Spencer to a fault at times, making sure Spencer had a fair shot to make it work with the types of players HE wanted.

Granted GW also brought in John Spencer—-that IS on him, but ultimately, they liked his personality and energy (so did I) and felt he was worth the shot. Spencer, in turn, probably said he agreed and could implement the attacking approach the Timbers wanted. But with time, it became clear his playing system wasn’t working, and was getting farther and farther away from the Timber’s stated goals of playing attacking football and developing from young talent.

As for Nagbe, look at him now, under GW! The strides he has made in the last few games are bigger than his entire 1.5 years under Spencer. He’s playing attacking center-mid, as he was in his last days under Spencer, but three goals in three games—-he’s now one behind Boyd for the team lead.

I agree with your criticisms of the team, but disagree that this is all on GW, and feel that GW’s actions as the new coach, have mostly taken the Timbers in a very new and different direction, which would have made the likes of McCarty, Cooper, Moffat fit in a lot better, and is now playing to the advantages of previous misfits like Nagbe and Songo’o.

by TimberGreen on Aug 27, 2025 10:30 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs