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The Portland Timbers could announce a move early next week, a source with the team has confirmed.
Having just won their first game of the season, the Timbers are looking to turn their season around and finish the year strong, including in the team's first appearance in the CONCACAF Champions' league at the end of the season, and to do so the team may need shoring up.
Merritt Paulson started off the morning's speculation with a tweet hinting at potential upcoming signings.
Gavin gets back from 2+ weeks in Europe on Saturday. Fingers crossed on a couple intriguing deals. Both soon and for July. #RCTID
— Merritt Paulson (@MerrittPaulson) May 6, 2014
After the Timbers' two months without a win to start the season, there has been plenty of speculation as to what moves the Timbers need to make to bring them back up to the conference-winning form of 2013. This tweet confirms that the team have not been resting on their laurels.
After today's practice, Caleb Porter confirmed that the team are looking at potentially bringing in a new player before the end of the spring transfer window on May 12th.
"We are always looking and I think that perhaps there could be some moves made now and perhaps in the summer," Porter said.
Of course, in Major League Soccer there can't be any addition without subtraction. The Timbers will have to open up a roster spot if they want to bring in a new player and right now Frederic Piquionne looks like the player most likely to leave the team.
Piquionne has been in Martinique dealing with a family emergency for three weeks now, a situation that Porter mentioned when talking about the potential for moves from the team.
"We have Freddy's situation right now, he's still not back, and that puts us with only two strikers. We need to figure that situation out."
A situation that could lend the Timbers further roster flexibility is the current loan of Jose Adolfo Valencia, which is rumored to come with an option to purchase for Club Olimpo. With Valencia currently the team's leading scorer, and one of the top scorers in the Argentine first division, the Timbers stand to gain a significant amount of allocation money from his sale.
If the Timbers can work out a deal to get that money now, rather than at the end of the season, they would find themselves with a large amount of flexibility in their roster, rather than their current situation which seems more limited.
As of right now, the only players ruled out have been United States Men's National Team players Terrence Boyd and Jozy Altidore, who Paulson tweeted are "not in play".