It's been rumored in the press that Dembele is unhappy at Tottenham and believes he has to leave so that he can cement his place in the Belgium World Cup Squad. Dembele is up against the likes of Hazard (Chelsea), Dries Mertins (Napoli), Fellaini (ManU), Chadli (Tottenham), De Bryuen (Chelsea), Witzel (Zenit), Defour (Oporto). Would he come back to Fulham, but I don't think we can loan him as we already have Bent & Taarabt for the rest of the season? Tottenham have a host of players that don't seem to have settled after being bought. Is it a case of going to a bigger club where expectations are higher from the fans. They have 3 players who'd I buy for our midfield, Holtby, Sigundarsson, Dembele. A few more CM/AM players I'd have a punt on would be, Maarten Martens from AZ Alkmaar Aaron Hunt from Weder Bremen (more of a Dempsey) Dusan Tadic from Twente Alex Maxim from Vfb Stuttgart Takashi Inui from Frankfurt Who would be on your CM/AM list ?
After the Meulensteen announcement I heard us being linked with January loan moves for Zaha (not central, I know) and Anderson from United. If the latter happens, I'm sure people will say it's a dreadful signing, but I think he's a better player than he's given credit for. Given a run of games he could do well. Not that I'm saying he's at the top of my wish list or anything. Strangely, I'm not wild about Zaha - he would be another winger pushing the likes of Kacaniklic and Mesca down the pecking order and limiting their opportunity to play. I'd rather we were giving game time to our talented youngsters than Man United's talented youngsters if there's no chance of a permanent transfer. I don't know most of the players you mention from abroad, Super Brian, so I can't comment on them. What we need is a creative passer who is also able to stand up to the more combative side of a midfield battle. There are plenty of players out there (and already in our squad) who cover one side of that or the other. Finding someone who does both is hard to pull off.
I'm not convinced by Kacaniklic. For me he falls into category of being another luxury player. I haven't seen him put in a decent tackle or help the defense, he seems to mark space. I think teams have marked him out to be a weak link defensively, the Liverpool game was a point when he got taken off at HT when he'd been totally missing in action. As for the Anderson and Zaha from ManU I'm not sure we can get anymore domestic loans this season (Bent & Taarabt), so we'd have to buy Anderson, which is a bit of a gamble for the wages he is on.
Does anyone know if a loan agreement is hard and fast? if so would it be possible to drop Taarabt from the squad and then loan say, for the sake of a name Anderson, although i only have eyes for Dembele now this rumour has surfaced.
Dembele is the reason why Fulham aren't at least mid-table right now. Tottenham signing him ripped the team apart.
We would need to sign either Bent or Taarabt permanently in January for us to be able to take another domestic loan. EDIT: Of course, I don't think there would be too much opposition from fans to us offering Spurs £10m in take Dembele back permanently. Not sure he'd go for that though...
That's a bit of a reach, I think. It think it would be more accurate to say the loss of Murphy, Dembele and Dempsey was what crushed the team, and perhaps if they were still here, we'd be closer to mid table. I'd love to see Dembele come back, and Dempsey on loan for that matter, but I think Fulham's problems go much deeper than what D&D could fix.
I think if we were interested, and made this public knowledge, I think Moose would be interested in moving back here. For one thing, he wouldn't have to relocate, he gets to play with players with more technical ability than when he was last here, and gets on very well with MJ. If Jol fancies having him back, and by the way he hasn't stopped going on about his departure since it happened, I guess he would, Shahid Khan needs to break the bank to bring him home. Like DR says, this doesn't fix all of our problems, but it goes such a long way, having a man in midfield that is a forward thinker and can at ease, create goalscoring chances for our strikers, because right now there's such a huge gap between attack and defence, Dembele would fix that.
I'd take him back in a heartbeat. Loved watching him, Jol made a master stroke putting him in the centre where he really flourished. Come on Mr Khan you know what's needed.
People's biggest grip against Anderson is his fitness. He seems to spend more time eating pies then training. He's an exceptionally talent footballer who lacked the work ethic to make it at the top. Don't see him leaving on loan unless United sign some midfielders in the January window. As of now there's only Carrick, Anderson, Clevery, and Fellaini as CM's. A few others could play there, but that isn't their natural or best position. Not sure why Zaha isn't getting any game time either. All of our wingers have been poor this season and Zaha was great in the preseason. I know it's preseason, but Januzaj was in the same boat he got a chance and look what he's done with it so far. There's a rumor that Zaha slept with Moyes daughter so it may be something personal and Moyes make look to get rid of him for awhile.
Great though it would be to have Mousa back, it's so unlikely. His rime at Spurs could be further threatened in that they are said to be interested in Andrea Pirlo and the clubs may a swop in mind. Just on Pirlo, I went to the Italy v Nigeria game at the Cottage last night and well, he is just 'master class'! Not that I'm suggesting he's a prospect for us, although..
