While reading an interview with new US national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann, the great German made the following statement when asked why Dempsey and a few other players weren't named to the US team playing Mexico on Saturday: "It's basically all based on individual situations. Dempsey got back into his team and is starting to have his rhythm. He also has to kind of clear up things with Fulham in terms of [if there is] a possible move out there? ... Every individual player has his unique situation, and that's how I made my decisions ... With Clint I said: 'You know what? Maybe it's better you sort things out with [Fulham coach] Martin Jol, who I know really well. Then I follow up after our game with the coach and with you and we'll see where this leads.' Two things stick out: 1) sounds like Dempsey's interested in a move away from the Cottage and 2) there's some conflict between himself and Marten Jol. Whether Dempsey's desire to leave is the result fo the conflict, or the cause of the conflict, is unknown. Jol's been our fourth manager since Dempsey got here 4 1/2 years ago; that kind of discontinuity is rarely helpful in keeping top players. Obviously, Dempsey's just one player. Three years ago when Fulham didn't have people like Duff, Dembele and Sidwell, losing Dempsey would be a catastrophic lose, but today I think Fulham are well positioned to replace him if he chooses to leave. Certainly I hope he stays.
I personally dont want to see "Demps" go,one reason he will be difficult to replace and if we got 7/10mil,i could see it being spent on half a dozen bargain basement job lots. And that would signal a return to the Sanchez era.
I agree that I'd prefer to keep Dempsey, but DR is right - if we lost him now, it wouldn't be a disaster in terms of leaving us short. It may be that we've already got his replacement in Kasami. If Jol is keen on width in midfield, rather than players who cut in, then maybe we're better to sell him while his price is likely to be high rather than see him sit on the bench and lose value. As for the bargain basement jobs, I don't think you and I will ever agree on this, Valjing. Sanchez made some awful signings, I agree. He also made some very good ones - Murphy, Hughes and (once Roy sorted him out) Baird. Just because Sanchez's bargains weren't bargains doesn't mean that everyone else's are the same. A few years ago Everton spent £1.5mil on a lower-division bargain called Tim Cahill. That didn't work out too badly. Roy Hodgson spent peanuts on a non-league defender called Chris Smalling, and a goalkeeper called David Stockdale. Four years ago, Mark Hughes spent a massive £450,000 on Chris Samba - what's he worth now? Kevin Davies was a free transfer, released by Southampton when Bolton signed him in 2003. Blackpool signed Charlie Adam for £500,000. I seem to recall you saying we should sign him last January. What would you have said in August 2009 if we had competed with Blackpool for the then Rangers reserve? The problem isn't with signing unknowns from the lower divisions or 'lesser' (no disrespect intended) leagues, it's with managers who can't pick the right unknowns from the wrong ones. I'm sure you could reply with an equally long list of signings that haven't worked out - I'm not trying to say that the cheap option is always the best. But the cheap option is our best chance of getting someone a bit special before everybody else knows that they are a bit special, the price (and wage demands) go sky high and we find ourselves priced out of the market.
The Captain is right - I'd rather spend a little on a pants player than £10m+ on an equally pants player. Marlet is a prime example. Val's mate AJ hasn't been value for money either. We need more signings like Kasami - shrewdness is the way forward for us. We can't compete with Man City, Spuds, even Villa. And I agree about selling Dempsey, we're in a decent position should he want to go. I still hope he doesn't though.
"More signings like Kasami,"a bit presumptuous,let him get a few games under his belt, before we get to excited. I hope he is the sort of success,where in a few years time sums like 15/20 mil are bandied about.
Yeah, I realise he hasn't proven himself to be anything special (and to be fair I never said he was), but what I mean is we need to be signing young, talented players for considerably less than £10m/£5m - like Kasami. We can't go out and buy an Aguero.
I just read somewhere the other day that Real Madrid had scooped Barcelona by purchasing the rights to a 7-year-old from Argentina. In a NY Times story I read last year that the famous Ajax youth system the Dutch are scouting boys at age 4 and 5, looking for that spellbinding talent waiting to be nurtured. Point is it's getting harder and harder to find those unknowns, even in a football wastelands like America.
yeh i read that aswell, some players dont start playing football till they are 7 or above so there is always a change that we might get one of these stars of the future lol
