Maaaaaann… things are getting pretty grim in the house of the Timbers. Santi has so much talent but has had a rough year and apparently having some issues with Gio.
All I hope at this point is he can go somewhere that makes him happy and that somewhere isn’t another western conference team. Regardless though, this makes me very sad.
Edit: More details in this “emergency” podcast from Soccer Made in Portland (the podcast run by the author of the above article): https://www.oregonlive.com/podcasts/2023/07/soccer-made-in-portland-podcast-reaction-to-santiago-morenos-transfer-request.html
side note: this is such a bittersweet thing to make as my first Lemmy post :(
Sadly it’s looking more and more to be the case. I’ve not been as hot as other fans to fire Gio in the last few years, but this season is finally starting to weigh on me. There’s been some similar things with a few other players in the last few years as well, such as that weird thing last season with Eryk Williamson getting benched at the end of the season, and Ivacic basically calling Gio a liar to the press at the beginning of this season as to why he was playing Bingham over Ivacic.
Between injuries and all the front office scandals, he’s been between a rock and a hard place pretty much his entire time he’s been here, so I have always been willing to give him some grace, but so many weird little things have slowly cropped up to being larger seemingly institutional rot at our core. I don’t put all the blame on him, but he’s not blameless and my grace may have waned by the end of the season depending on how things are.
I was a huge fan of Caleb, so was disappointed when he left. Gio was a great replacement though. However, like you things are wearing a bit thin. I keep hoping we’ll see some late season heroics, but those hopes are fading.