The Portland Timbers and head coach Phil Neville have mutually parted ways, the club announced Friday, ending his two-and-a-half seasons in charge as the team prepares to restart its season next week. A search for his replacement is underway.
Neville joined Portland in November 2023 ahead of the 2024 MLS season and leaves with a 27-31-24 record. The Timbers were 4-8-2 with 14 points and sat 13th in the Western Conference when the decision was announced, with 20 matches left in the 2026 campaign and a return to play scheduled for July 16 after a three-week break for the summer international window.
The move closes a run that brought both progress and frustration. In his first season, Neville guided Portland to a 12-11-11 record and its first playoff berth since 2021. The club then set a single-season scoring record with 65 goals in 2024, before following that with an 11-12-11 mark in 2025 and a second straight postseason appearance. Portland beat Real Salt Lake in the Wild Card round before falling to top-seeded San Diego FC in the Round One Best-of-3 Series.
General manager Ned Grabavoy said the club held pointed discussions this offseason about areas it needed to build on and improve, but said the progress it needed never arrived and the results fell well short of expectations. Neville echoed that assessment in his farewell, saying the results had not been to the expectation of the football club and thanking Merritt Paulson, Grabavoy, his staff, his players and the Timbers Army for their support.
Paulson praised Neville’s leadership and positivity, saying there were few people he had enjoyed working with more during nearly two decades of owning and operating the club. Neville, who previously spent more than two seasons as head coach of Inter Miami CF, said he would miss the Portland community and urged supporters to keep backing the players and the club. For a team still in the middle of the season, the urgency now shifts to finding a coach who can turn decent seasons into something more than that.
