One week ago, the Portland Timbers crashed out of the MLS Playoffs in humiliating fashion, losing 5-0 to the Vancouver Whitecaps in a game in which neither the offense nor the defense remembered that the season was not over yet.
It was a brutal ending to the season for a team that had shown glimmers of its future potential all season. The Timbers had not been to the playoffs in three years, were in the first year of a new coaching regime, and had spent much of the season trying to find their identity at both ends of the pitch. Making the playoffs in-and-of-itself was an accomplishment, but instead of getting ready for the team to put the next building blocks in place this offseason, Timbers fans are forced to watch the team re-litigate who was responsible for the disaster at the end.
Following the loss, star striker Evander took to social media and put the team’s front office on blast. In a series of Tweets, he wrote (emphasis mine):
“First, I want to apologize to all the fans who, on a Wednesday night, dropped everything to support us. It’s really hard to lose the way we did. The truth is, losing is not in our plans, but we have to deal with it.
I want to say that we, the players and the entire staff, did everything we could to take Portland as far as possible. However, sometimes we have no control over what happens, and what happens off the field reflects on the field
Portland fans do not deserve the people who have power over this club. People who say they are men but do not keep their word. People who are only there when the team wins. Unfortunately, these are things we have no control over.
I have always fought and will continue to fight to put this team on top. To the fans, you deserve much more. Thank you for your unconditional support, and we’ll see you next season “
Evander explicitly praises his teammates and the coaching staff for doing “everything we could.” Meanwhile, he criticizes “the people who have power over the club,” those who do not keep their word.
That message was essentially an audience of two: Owner-in-exile Merrit Paulson and general manager Ned Grabavoy. According to MLS insider Tom Bogert, Evander also called out Grabavoy in the locker room after the game.
To be clear, it was an incredibly immature reaction on Evander’s part, and unless he’s trying to burn every bridge with Portland management and get out of town (which he could be doing!), lighting up your bosses online and in the locker room is never a great decision.
Evander and the Timbers have been engaged in contract negotiations throughout the season, with the Brazilian striker also attracting interest from international clubs. With Evander blossoming this season into the player the Timbers hoped he would, it has become clear that a) it will take a hefty sum to keep him long-term and b) he could fetch a hefty sum on the transfer market.
Knowing those two things, a disciplined front office would know how to handle being called out by their star player. They would show up to face the inevitable questions and say something like: “Evander is a competitor. I don’t blame him for being upset right then, we’d just come off a difficult season ending loss, and everyone from the top down is frustrated by how the season ended. The staff and I talked with him about his remarks, and I think we’re all on the same page. Now we’re all going to move forward and put in the work this offseason to keep making this better.”
What did Grabavoy do? He got in front of a microphone and threw a ridiculously childish fit.
“I found it to be incredibly selfish,” Grabavoy said, going on to try and claim the mantle of being the one who cared about the fans and the rest of the team and painting Evander as only being focused on himself. With coach Phil Neville visibly squirming in the seat beside him, Grabavoy criticized Evander’s “lapse in judgment” and called him out for rejecting what he claimed would be the biggest contract in Timbers history.
If either Grabavoy or Evander is going to be gone this offseason, it will probably be Evander, as selling him would likely bring a massive transfer fee for the club. However, the decision would undoubtedly open up more questions about how committed the team is to winning or developing players in the long term. This offseason was supposed to be the first one in a while where the Timbers could escape the drama and show that their newly formed core was ready to lead the team back to the elite level in MLS.
With Grabavoy stoking the drama instead of ending it, things are not off to a great start.
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