http://www.footballtransfertavern.c...the-most-over-hyped-player-in-the-premiership An interesting article I found online and certainly the only one I have found that brings up the topic of Dembele and his 'inflated' valuation. The consensus seems to be that £10 million in a market where Carroll and Torres both cost an arm and a leg for an international in his mid 20's would be an absolute steal. Does anyone here agree that Dembele is overrated? The author of the article mentions the fact that he only has two goals and two assists to his name this season, is this a worthy return from a player who is central to the majority of our attacks? In my opinion, the article is nonsense. If you watch Dembele over 90 minutes you can see exactly what he does. Sure he doesn't have the number of assists Young has at Utd or the goals from midfield to compete with Dempsey but he offers valuable link up play sitting in midfield. Leon Britton does this very well for Swansea and has gone largely unnoticed, despite playing a key role in their superb first season in the PL. If Dembele goes for £10 million it will be the steal of the century rather than the sale.
Agree Bandit. If he should be on the move i feel our management are far to astute to be financially mugged. As there would possibly be more than one interested party lets throw our hat in the ring at a starting price of 15mil.
DemPele has really come on this season in the PL. Still carries the ball, but a) better; b) is looking for the right offload earlier. He is a real threat ghosting through; really complements Clint, and makes space for him to work between the lines. And the tackle-back rate is now noticeable. £10m minimum, but he should stay. I look forward to THE moment tomorrow when he slips the ball through to The Pog to score. C O Y W
Dembele will be world class probably by next year. Mark my words. He isnt overrated - he is underrated by people who only intelligent enough to care about goals. Dembelle has so much potential that I hope we sign him. If we can get him for 15m I will consider that a bargain. IMO he is worth 20m
The clown who wrote this article clearly hasn't ever watched him play. Shooting is dembele's one weakness, but he is improved remarkably this season and is an absolute delight to watch. I genuinely believe the moose would be as missed, if not more so than dempsey. He is one of the most aesthetically pleasing players I've seen in a Fulham shirt in our premier league years.
It's a very poor bit of writing. Dembele's shooting stats aren't bad- i think its in the 60% region shots overall to shots on target. He just doesn't shoot as often as he probably could. I'd say that he is looking to nail down the basics of central midfield- the key skill being not to lose possession. A player not fully comfortable in his position isn't going to try go beyond the remit- goalscoring centre mids are great, but beyond Lampard and Gerrard there aren't many others putting 10+ a season in. Once he's fully settled in the middle his return will improve. I think he will run down the contract.
On a separate point- Belgium might be the Euro team to watch over the next few years; I've heard about the 'golden generation' before, but today saw Kompany post; Vincent Kompany ‏ @VincentKompany Kevin Mirallas player of the year in Greece, @Jan_Vertonghen in holland and @hazardeden10 probably again in France. Well done boys! #Belgium Throw in Dembele and that's not a bad spine- lots of other young players as well
£10m would be a steal for him if he wasn't coming into the last year of his contract. I'd hope we can get more for him - if we have to sell - but suspect that the fear of losing him for nothing next summer may force the club's hand. I don't know if the article mentioned that, as I didn't bother reading it after everyone's negative comments. I've only read the wisdom from you lot.
The article isn't as biased or negative as I thought it'd be, just the closing few sentences are pretty damning. Not to mention not true. He's in a similar position to Demps - will he stay here and build a legacy, or sod off and warm a bigger clubs bench? If he does sling his hook then, like everyone says, we want top dollar for him, which is about £15m considering we don't want to sell him and he's got a year left on his contract. If his contract hadn't run down so low he'd be worth £20m.
After reading "contributing a poultry two goals", I couldn't really take the article seriously. Dembele has been almost ever-pheasant in the team this year. It's a bit of ostrich to say he's world class just yet with the lack of goals, but at least he broke his duck this year unlike £16m man Downing. If Dembele is to swan off into the sunset for us, we should get top dollar; this article strikes me as a bit of fowl play to try and reduce either expectations or his price.
Haha Surlyc my friend you have just become a bloody legend. I was laughing so much my GF came too see what I was looking at lol.
As a spurs fan, we were linked heavily with Dembele last summer. At the time, I slated the guy, however, time to eat my words; He's had a good season, and played very well consistently. Obviously you're not going to want to sell, but it seems as if he might be on his way if someone can come up with the funds. How much realistically are you expecting to fetch?
Considering his age,and the fact that he is still getting accustomed to the premiership, (still room for improvement) and looking around at some of the fees paid this season for mediocrity ~ £ 15 mil.
I don't think I'd take 10 million for him, if someone offered it, but 13 million would interest me. Oddly, I was watching the ManU/ManC game a couple of weeks ago and realized how similar Dembele is in style and execution to Yaya Toure, who's widely regarded as one of the best middle midfielders in the league. Dembele still holds the ball too long, though.
We took a chance on Dembele that he would adapt to the Premier. In his first season he was inconsistent, a bit like Steed Marlbranque when Tigana bought him in. I think this season he has become more of a team player and less worried about being the star, and trying to impress by going pass too many players, he's learnt when to release the ball. If he is to be sold, I don't see why we can't ask a fee of £15m, he's young, has proved he is capable of being a good Premier player. If those team that want him were to go and buy an untried foreign player they'd have to pay a lot more for someone like Eden Hazard or Ramus Elm.
All of the above and thanks surly, made my day. I'm assuming the author, Ryan Kelly, is the journalist student from Nottingham University, exercising the 'rule' that being controversial gets you published. As is using stats selectively to make the story legitimate (that's good coming from me !) - concentrating on Dembele's "2 assists" while not mentioning the 48 chances he created; assists only become assists if the chances are put away.
Strange article. I would however still like to see more goals from 'the Moose'. Something like he did against Spurs in the F.A Cup maybe!
Definitely agree that you can't judge a player fully on stats. Cheik Tiote has no goals and no assists this season for us but he is valued ~£20m and rightly so for the way he controls the midfield. We're resigned to the fact we may lose one or two of our top players this transfer window but Dembele is a popular choice amongst our lot to replace an outgoing Cabaye/Tiote. That said, I think Fulham are in a strong position to challenge for Europa next season so him staying would be a wise decision.
He is one of the players that I look at and time just stands still. I'm left open jawed at the way he just brushes past players and the fact the ball sticks like glue to his feet. He's brilliant and, I've said this before, my future captain of my beloved FFC!
