That Dembele goal brings tears to my eyes his rare goals were always quality. I'd honestly take Dembele back over ANY player in the world.
I don't doubt the greatest players in the world would do fantastic jobs for us, but I couldn't see them clicking with the team the same way Dembele did. I'm not as stupid to claim Dembele is the best player in the world, but it's how much they mean to the club which makes them 'world class'. For example, for us Dempsey was a world class player, whereas for Spurs he was average at best. Dembele would plug the gap in our midfield the same way he did before he left. I wasn't around to see the likes of Haynes at Craven Cottage, but Dembele for me has had the best close control of a football I've ever seen. I loved watching him play in the same way I did when watching Steed and Boa. Pure class.
I'd have to say Berba is better for me, but the importance of his role in our team can't be denied, I agree. With him we would've been snapping at the heels of the top six.
I'm with Bandit. It doesn't mean we wouldn't love to see the players you mention, but Dembele already has a place in our affections so his return would be rekindling a lost love, rather than starting from scratch with someone new. I get that.
Oh, I get it too, but I was just thinking that in a straight choice if offered Dembele or, say, Silva (which I know is unlikely to happen at Fulham but just in general) would you take Dembele? Not sure I would to be honest.
Dembele has already proven himself here, whereas players like Silva like Cap said would be starting from scratch and may not blend as well with our players as they would at their star studded teams, all hypothetical of course and as a FFC fan I am incredibly biased towards Dembele. Dempsey was a hero for us and should not be forgotten, but every FFC fan knew Dembele's exit would hurt us far more than Clint's.
As I've said many, many times I'd pay my season ticket just to watch Dembele. And I agree completely with you about the "hurt" factor, Bandit. Kind of strange though that 12 months on it is Dempsey that Jol still brings up in just about every interview.
I cringe every time he brings up the fact we lost Dempsey/Dembele, to use it as an excuse immediately afterwards is fair enough but he has been bleating on for months now, every team that isn't in the top four loses their best players at some point yet not every manager goes on and on about it afterwards. It's also strange how he constantly goes on about Dempsey going but also continuously praises the transfer of Berbatov, when in reality, one needed to happen to allow the other to.
Well, losing Dembele/Dempsey was a defining part of last season. I'd find it more odd if people excluded that when talking about it. If Jol is still talking about it in 6 months or a year, then maybe it's worth noting. To be honest, what do we expect him to say? "I lost £21m of players but MAF only allowed me to bring in £7m of replacements" might not go down too well with AliMac or Khan!
We were unlucky in a sense, but Dempsey had been lined up for a move all summer, so a replacement should have been on the cards before deadline day, and Dembele's clause was public knowledge and could have been activated at any time. What was unlucky was the Huddlestone deal breaking down, as he would have been Dembele's direct replacement. But this summer gives us an opportunity to properly replace both players now that we have some money behind us, so Jol should rather be looking forward than constantly making references to past activity.
