The shirt sales may not be massive in the UK, but your forgetting something..he's American, and FSG do a lot of promotional work in America. Every time Dempsey scores for Liverpool, FSG's sports channels(NESN) viewership will go through the roof. Their marketing company will also be making money. So if FSG make money..Liverpool make money. Clint Dempseys goals may be worth in the region of £1 million a goal. If he scores 10 goals, then FSG will be £10 million richer. This is only forecasting so don't take it as fact.
Dempsey to replace Kuyt? We dont really need anymore attacking players imo. -----------Suarez----------- Downing-----------Borini ----------------------------- Gerrard--Lucas--Adam Im guessing it'll look something like that.
Dirk was cool as **** I know that ...But let's be honest here...he was hit and miss. As long as Dempsey puts in the work of Dirk then he'll be good. For me he's one of those players...if we don't sign him it won't worry me one bit but if we do I can see what he can potentially bring to the team.
I hadn't forgotten he was American believe me I'm just not sure how big the market is for "soccer shirts" is in the States relative to say Europe or Asia. I'd be amazed if his goals are worth anywhere near a mill each but I take your point
I agree with that assumption, The US market is a very very difficult market to crack. No English side has cracked it yet. However what I'm suggesting with the marketing company and the media company that Liverpools owners own, it may be easier for them to crack it than maybe some of the others. I also believe in ''recognition by association', Liverpool are part owned through a media and marketing deal by a '''world star'' in the USA in Lebron James. This may assist them even further.
The thing is... every one of those could have been applied to, lets say, Robbie Keane or Joe Cole (other than the goals). As for the shirt sales, he has a very very very small target demographic, he's not going to shift many shirts. He will open up the market to us, but we need the Ramirez/Sahin/Tello type signings to really start taking advantage of it. Think about it. There are 3 types of football fans in the USA. 1. Foreigners (Europeans/Mexicans/South Americans/etc) that love football from even back in their countries. These fans would never buy a US players shirt as most already have clubs/are patriotic themselves. 2. Americans who have recently gotten into club football - rare, but they have already chosen a team, usually from La Liga or the Prem and they wouldn't buy a rivals shirt. 3. Patriotic Americans who watch the USMNT and nothing more. Given that their culture really shuns football as "not a real sport" these fans aren't very common. You don't see die hard USA supporters who aren't already into club football usually. As for the goals - Here's the thing. The amount of goals a midfield can score is based upon their overall quality. If, lets say you have a really **** midfield overall, you have an average of about 10 goals from it overall. If you have an alright midfield then you have maybe 20, a good midfield 30, and so on. To get the midfield to score more goals, you have to raise the quality of your midfield. You can't just buy top scorers from small clubs and add that total on to what you expect, it doesn't work like that. You saw Charlie Adam - proven goalscorer at Blackpool. When he came here he wasn't improving our midfield, he was filling in the gaps and as such he never scored those 13 from the last season. I'd much rather we get a top quality young midfielder who will improve the overall quality before we get someone like Dempsey. If we get Sahin, then ok, that might be worth about 5m. Any more than that and we can get better value elsewhere.
Yeah I'm sure its a consideration for them in that sense. I like to think this is a BR signing though and that's about his ability as a footballer...if FSG are signing players for BR then I'd start to get a bit worried
I can't wait for us to complete the signings of Dempsey and Sahin! I admit I wasn't 100% sure about Dempsey but I'm convinced about the depth he will add to our attack, something we've lacked for a very long time.
dempsey fee is critical honestly. can anyone just indicate where dempsey fit into the front 3 who does he replace and ESPECIALLY when a midfield of sahin lucas and allen is picked. gerrard borini suarez cole downing dempsey sterling carroll again not sure how it fits together as there really is only one no 9 there and the rest are not precisely wide men to say wide as rodgers seems at least to want.... do we have 10mil to spend on a benchwarmer... eh do i really care. Sahin = has to be for te firsts so do we loan shelvey or henderson (england underage captains) should we hock adam to utd for 10mil for corners alone or are they set with RVP?
Ok...on the point about European/South American fans in the states I think the point is this. A lot of those people are not just proud of their native nations but also of the US as well. Ask yourself this...if you were from the US and the team you followed was LFC who's name would you get on your shirt? Now that won't be massive numbers (hence why I said not massive) but significant anyway. Sir Kennys point is also worth considering about the potential selling power of "the brand" (I hate that phrase btw) through TV etc is increased. I know a player who scores lots at a certain level of club doesn't guarantee the same return when they step up a level but 29 goals or whatever it was is a sign he knows how to stick the ball in the net. Would you rather we sign players who haven't done it the previous season? Buying from top clubs doesn't guarantee anything anymore than buying from mid table clubs...its about the player surely. The comparison with Adam is slightly unfair IMO simply because Adam took all Blackpools set pieces and pens yet still only got a third of Dempseys goals last year. Add to that the fact he's also had 2/3 decent Prem seasons not just one like CA had had. As stated above I wouldn't particullarly care if we didn't get him. If we went after someone younger and better quality then fine but they don't often come cheap. So at the right price I can definitely see the appeal
Much like Charlie Adam is a poor man's Paul Scholes, Clint Dempsey is the poor man's Robin Van Persie signing but versiltility instead of a injury record. I don't think either are good enough in terms of ability but am willing to accept one if it gets rid of the other
Guess that depends if he's just a "bench warmer" or someone who comes off the bench and bangs in late goals and the fact that he can play either side of a front man or. Behind a front two or even either side of Lucas (as cover I mean) and that's not a bad player to have in the squad.
Well MITO from Rodgers press conferences and the games against Gomel, it's going to look something like this. ----------------Lucas----------------- ---------Gerrard----Allen-------------- --Downing-----------------Suarez----- -----v--------Borini-----------v------- Basically that front three of Downing, Suarez and Borini would be fluid, running up and down, into the box, wherever they're needed, etc. The only player Dempsey will replace is obviously Downing (he can't possibly be Gerrards replacement I'm assuming ). However, Rodgers has indicated that Downing is a vital part of his plan so basically Dempsey is going to be on the bench. And then we'll have Dempsey, Adam, Cole, Henderson, Shelvey, Suso, and Spearing trying to break into just the bench - all in the midfield positions. Assuming only two will actually make it to the bench, those will have to be Dempsey (due to the transfer) and then one of Henderson/Shelvey. Which is ok, but it restricts one of Henderson/Shelvey and eliminates the chance of Suso or Sterling getting many opportunities. Also, Sahin will be fighting for a first team place as well. Basically its a hassle (better than having none) but I'd rather just sign one more striker and be done with the window.
The potential selling power of the brand. Our brand is huge, and every avenue should be looked into to make it even bigger and exploit it. We don't have a ''Sugar Daddy'' so our only real avenue for success is aggressive marketing. Some people call it ''commercial whoring''. I personally prefer this method to having a ''sugar daddy'' as it means that the revenue collected has been earnt.
This At the minute, I would guess at a midfield three of Gerrard, Lucas and Allen and a front three of Downing, Borini and Suarez. Two of Tello, Sahin or Dempsey joining makes it all a bit unclear as to who goes where. It will be a very good problem to have though Edit: I feel the need to point out that it is a squad game fellas...
Fair enough, you have some great points. Although, it really does matter what the club you're buying from is. I'd feel so much better buying a 29 year old from Inter Milan than I would from Fulham. One has proved himself at a big club, one hasn't. By that logic, if it depends on the player, why aren't they already at a top club? Why are they stuck at Fulham (no disrespect, just if everyone assumes he's quality...) or Blackpool halfway or at the end of their career? Time isn't on their side if they don't adapt. It's a gamble, a small one but still one with risks. He did score 23 goals but if you look at Fulhams play last year, and I did catch a lot of games, their tactic was basically centred around Dempsey. There were games where every attack went straight to him, from the defence, or from the goalkeeper and he had to take it alone. With service like that you're bound to get goals. The service he got at Fulham - well if Suarez had that kind of service he'd score 4 or 5 per game! He's not going to get that kind of service here. He's not a big fish anymore, he's got to be a provider as opposed to a reciever. I agree with you though. If it were the right price, and he was only going to replace Adam on the bench, then ok, I'd reluctantly say that's a decent buy. But we've really got to stop buying "decent" and start buying "good".
But if they are LFC fans, wouldn't they (not all but a lot) buy a Liverpool shirt anyway? Maybe with someone else's name on? You can't tell me that signing Dempsey would suddenly increase the number of people wanting to buy a shirt by exactly the same amount as the 'Dempsey shirt sale' record! Adam took a lot of our set-pieces and a few penalties, didn't bloody help him did it! Also, when Murphy wasn't on the pitch didn't Dempsey take a few penalties last season?
You know Rodgers gets paid a lot of money to make these decisions. Given that he wanted total control then I assume if we sign dempsey then he has a "cunning"plan. Only recently we were bemoaning lack of depth and game changers on the bench. Now he is trying to give us that then why are some complaining. I don't care what we spend on Dempsey,if he comes and wins us some of the games that we couldn't win last season then he will be worth every penny...and it's not my money. If we sign Sahin and Tello or someone we don't know about then great. City won the title last year because of their large squad. It allows players to be rested without compromising quality and results. Last season when gerrad was injured and Lucas was out we had to make do with Adam,spearing,Henderson...do you want another season like that. Get some quality in and stop worrying that's Brendon's job. Also,isn't Dempsey the same age as RVP? I know he doesn't have RVP's scoring record but his return in recent seasons is good,he doesn't have an injury record like RVP either and for less than half the price that's not a bad deal. If it happens of course.
It really looks Tello and Sahin are on the way, I am happy with this. However who is on the way? With these 2 coming in the squad is full of players that need to move on i.e. Cole & Adam surely these 2 are not going to hang around? Just read that bak and it's complete nonsense but I'm sure you get what I mean.
