well, that is that. spencer is now unemployed. last week, when contemplating the inevitable sacking, i told a regular reader of the blog i would thieve his flippant description of this event. little did we know it would be this week. but even if spencer is now for hire, i cannot bring myself to make any further references to robert urich without feeling like a hack-journo. even still, i am sure spencer can now catch up on reading proust and cooking all 524 recipes of julia child’s mastering the art of french cooking. instead of julia and julie, i think a new hit is in the making–julia and john, shut your haggis traps!
to say i am a little shocked would place me in enormous company. it is not that i did not see it coming, but that i did not see it coming so soon. i had never been a large supporter of spencer and his tactics (if what he did with the timbers personnel can be called tactics), but not once did i think he would be canned mid-season. putting aside all my biases and considering the implications of a mid-season sacking, i simply could not see anything good coming from such a disruption to an already difficult season. but it has happened and now we need to look beyond the obvious and consider what will happen in the coming weeks and months until a new coach will be hired.
the first thing that struck me about presser announcing spencer’s firing, is the merritt’s claim that ”fundamental philosophical differences” were the ice that broke the rock. while i was expecting more along the lines of “our record does not reflect the quality of players now assembled and because of that the organization needs to move in a different direction,” the ambiguous philosophical differences will have to be a sufficient explanation. only, i have now developed a deep foreboding regarding the hiring process performed by the timbers front office. it suggests the timbers hiring committee (gavin and merritt) failed to vet spencer properly. if these were issues discussed in an on-going and candid conversation throughout the season, then it is obvious to me those issues existed before the current season even began. if the previous vetting did not elicit enough information about spencer’s philosophy of fiddly bits and beating the unique qualities out of players to mould them into automatons without imagination and creativity, how can we be confident any philosophical differences may be properly exposed during the next few months of conversations with prospective managers? the implications do not give me hope that the next coach who steps up to the podium will be much of an improvement.
but merritt, who can never be accused of not caring about the timbers, did make clear that he had gathered together a large number of qualities the next coach should possess. i think the word he used was litany, which might be appropriate considering the religious intonations of the word and what will be expected of the next coach. spencer was required to get this team to the playoffs, so i expect the next coach will be required to render unto gavin the things that are gavin’s.
if there was any doubt this team and these players were gavin’s, the general manager and now interim head coach dispelled the uncertainty. in unequivocal terms, gavin issued the declaration that he was
responsible for bringing the players [to portland] and it’s up to [him] to get a little more out of them.
and i say hail, caesar! gavin did assemble them, now he must try to win with them. sure, we have seen glimpses of their qualities, but we have also observed how inconsistently they have been displayed. acknowledging those issues, gavin went on to say that:
We’re looking at maximizing the potential, the ability of the players have – getting a little bit more out of them, getting a little more consistent … just strive to make the playoffs.
he had me until he mentioned the playoffs. sure, making the playoffs in the mls is not a difficult feat when nearly every team in the league makes the playoffs, but setting it as the benchmark for a successful season only increases the likelihood that the season will be defined as a failure. frankly, i would define the season a success if the timbers could play consistently through the remaining 17 matches.
as every armchair manager might, i have some suggestions for gavin that need immediate attention and might help him achieve a consistent level of play. first, remove the armband from jewsbury and remove him from the starting eleven. describing the art of doing nothing is difficult, but too often i have found it easy to describe jack doing just that. for some reason spencer considered him the ideal captain and gave him a guaranteed position within the starting eleven. he is neither a good footballer nor is he a good captain. he is not vocal on the pitch and the only example he leads by is a bad one. frankly, all the footballing intelligence contained in brian clough’s decaying body could not unlock jack’s ability to play. so i doubt gavin will be able to work the sort of miracle necessary to unlock something one of the greatest motivators in football could not do, dead or alive.
the next suggestion i have for gavin is this: delist #facepalmer. cut him outright. no further explanation is needed.
finally, if gavin has learned anything from watching the long demise of john spencer he should know that requiring players to perform in roles where they are uncomfortable enforces their inconsistency. play to the strengths of each player rather than adhering to a system that never really worked in the first place.
i have little else to say about the sacking, because i care very little about the event. it had to happen eventually. managers come and go, but the timbers will remain. our loyalties as supporters should always and will always remain with the timbers. i never sang myself horse for spencer, or any manager, but i do every match for the timbers. in all of this, it is important to remember the players have likely experienced a greater shock than us supporters. come saturday against the la gals we need to provide them the support they deserve.
at any rate, let the healing begin. have a great day.
sunshine
The reality of the firing made me a little sad. Spencer seemed like a decent person who viewed his Portland appointment as a great opportunity, which it was.
Spencer may be one of those very useful assistant managers, who’s skill is working on smaller team problems at the direction of a big-picture manager. He was a good player in his day, somewhat of a standout. Sometimes, the gifted players can’t coach others to do what they do instinctually. The right thing seems so obvious; surely the players will get it on their own?
If Spencer and GW actually did collaborate on player selection (as they claim), what on earth was Spence’s vision of the Portland Timbers and their play? Maybe he saw MLS as always being like what it was when he played in Colorado – a lower level league like English 2nd or 3rd division, where you get the ball upfield somehow, hoping for set pieces and for three or four defensive slip ups by the other team.
As a former forward, how did he not see the value of the best midfield providers possible to supply the scoring specialists? Or, did Spencer think that he made his own chances as a player?
bucky-
i think we can all agree that any sort of collaboration on player selection consisted of spencer telling gavin he needed a player and then gavin telling spencer he had another left back for him to insert into a round hole. player acquisition was more consistent with acquisition than filling a need.
i will not pretend to know what spencer’s interractions with players were like, but i have heard rumours they were not always well received. perhaps those rumours can be attributed to bitterness from ex-players, or wounded pride from current players who have had shouting matches with the ex-gaffer. regardless, what i have heard was not positive.
would his approach bode well as an assistant? wasnt that the role he had in houston before being pinched by gav and merritt? he turned heads with his efforts there, so perhaps he could once again flourish with direction–something that seems to have been missing this last year and a half.
If we score 10 goals in the next 17 games, I might be willing to call this season a success. No more getting shutout would be nice so 17 goals minimum but I am willing to settle for 10 at this time.
set the bar low and you will not be disappointed. 10 goals would be exceptional, given the lack of provider on the side…but gavin will get the most out of “his” players.
What I saw on Saturday was a desperate coach who was on the hot seat and tried to hit a Home Run. He decided to try something very different by his standards (while inexplicably going back to a Jewsbury led MF, with facepalm) in order to hopefully catch RSL off-guard and then sneak off with a win, what would’ve been the first road win of 2012. Then the boys come home and beat LA and the coach has bought himself more time. But it all blew up in his face and it was another embarrassing road loss, another humiliation for the badge. I think the boys could sense what Spencer was really doing, which may partly explain their half-speed effort for much of the game and their frustration near the end. Once an already poorly performing manager starts doing this sort of thing the FO has little choice but to let him go.
there seem to be a number of “what if’s” about this moment in timbers history. i get what he was doing and i actually saw it work for 60 minutes until a certain defensive-mid gave beckerman space, only to be assisted in his efforts by some poor man-marking on futty’s end. however, there was no chance of that formation ever scoring. i would have thought a more balanced 4-4-2 would have satisfied the same needs and kept #facepalmer off the pitch (but i am a blogchair manager).
i cannot accept the premise that the team quit on spencer. if they had, the previous two home results would not have happened. sure, they fought in front of the home support, but i have also witnessed them give up a lead to rsl at home in front of that same support.
right now, i only want to see gavin do better. if he can do better. you know–justify his place at the club.
For what it’s worth, I think that the end was hastened by the poor tactical decision in terms of formation in the FSL match. People have called that a 4-3-3, but as I said in the ratings column, it was really a 4-2-3-1. The players didn’t know how to play it and spent a lot of time looking confused. It killed any small hope of a scoring threat, yet failed to do the thing that it was meant to do, i.e. allow Portland to compete more aggressively in midfield. I understand the thinking behind it, but it was a bad idea nonetheless.
And that was (I suspect) the icing on the cake, pace the assertions of philosophical differences. I can’t remember the Timbers ever playing that formation before, and they simply did not have the personnel or the experience to make it work. You can argue that the quality of the playing staff is in part to blame, but changing things in a way that makes a bad situation immeasurably worse is very often a recipe for a pink slip. And so it was.
I don’t bear Spencer any ill will, mostly because I don’t think he was the problem. Or, more properly, he was only the narrow edge of the wedge, so to speak, of a larger problem in terms of the organization of the side.
Right after we heard about this whole thing, I sent sunshine a text to the effect that Mr. Wilkinson was now going to get to snuggle up in the bed that he had made. I must say that I am very curious to find out how it suits him.
Rick’s right. By the RSL game Spencer was a desperate coach, hoping that lining up the current Timbers yet one more way on the RSL pitch would paper over a midfield that.just.doesn’t.work.
The Timbers have one way to attack an opponent’s goal and every coach in MLS seems ready for it. At Jeld-Wen, the crowd energy and home pitch motivation allows our predictable attack to succeed even when the visitors know what’s coming.
I hope for our sakes (fans & players) there’s an emotional bounce on Saturday from facing up to Spencer’s shortcomings. After that, it’s 8 League home matches and 9 more road contests in regular season. Gavin, work your magic!
i think we all agree the formation and personnel choices made last saturday were shocking.
under spencer, the timbers had one way of attacking. with more freedom i think the personnel may be able to express themselves better. of course, that is all contingent on the changes gavin actually makes. he did say he would not change much in order to not affect the team too adversely.
to echo magadh, i think only one head of the hydra has been removed.
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Update: Gavin is 0 and 5. 12 goals against in 5 matches and three for. Broke the MLS record for most consecutive goalless minutes away from home. The ancient Scottish 4 man backline has more holes than swiss cheese. Especially when you add in Smith’s lack of ability to adjust to faster more physical, but less skilled MLS wingers. Boyd is turning into another Cooper playing in this system.
joe-
it is the system, not the man. you get boyd service and you might see him scoring like cooper is at nyrb. might. i have never been a big fan of the classic, old school center forward. i prefer a striker who can create his own opportunities as well as score off service. the timbers system is so stuck in the 1980′s when i leave jw i often long for a wedge cut.