The Dempsey and Dembele to Spurs thread

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

That was interesting. From McBride's comments, my take away is that Don was right when he said if Dempsey is sold it will be b/c the club want to sell Dempsey. I think both parties saw a situation where the player's market value was at an all time high and both parties agreed to try and cash in on it. As a result, it sounds like his sitting out was by mutual consent. Somewhere along the way whatever deal they were working on or thought they had went sideways and now we find ourselves where we do.

I do think Jol and Fulham have been disingenuous in their representation of the situation in the press conference as it regards Dempsey's "refusal", "unwillingness", or what have you to play. That was Sarah Brookes in the interview, so it was a Fulham employee asking questions of Fulham's manager. I'm wondering if McBride backing him is the truth coming out he was referring to or if there is an interview (likely American media) set up, or if he's referring to speaking after the Fulham situation is resolved.

We'll see. Either way, it doesn't sound like Clint is the villain that some believe him to be.

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

very insightful stuff y'all...thanks!!

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

HD's long held prediction will come true in a week or so. Arsenal looked shite in offense - sold Van Persie and Song, flush with cash and an angry Wenger from what I took in the post-match interview. He'll be a Gooner in 10 days time. Sure, it breaks the Wenger-mold, but, Dempsey gives instant value. This will happen.

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

Weird. The video in the link Heather posted is not what aired today. At least not the one I watched today at noon central and have on my dvr.

I'll take a stab at transcribing the segment that went out over the air.

Rob Stone does a brief intro on the situation then...

Rob Stone (RS): Brian as a former Fulham player, what do you make of this club vs player confrontation.

Brian McBride (BM): It's never good, I mean stuff like this when it becomes public, you never want to see that. You know, I got a chance to talk to Clint on Friday and it's not perfect, and he knows that. And I think, things are probably not as clear as everybody probably thinks they are. Um but, the relationship he has with Fulham, Fulham fans, he's cherished that. I know that. Fulham has loved having him be a part of the teams, and you can see why they still want to see him be part of the team, because he makes a huge difference. It's just whether or not both teams, er both people, can walk away and be happy.

Eric Winalda (EW): I'm not happy with Martin Jol. I think, I think that you saw him backtrack now from he refused to play to now, well refused to play is a little harsh, because that's not what he did, he didn't refuse to play. So the hard part for me right now is, ok olive branch or not, the player wants to go, and it's because he wants bigger and better things. There was an opportunity and maybe maybe I'm not saying Martin Jol is a liar but maybe at some point along the line Clint Dempsey felt like he's been misled and that, that's why he's upset.

Warren Barton (WB): From my point, it shouldn't come public. That's where you don't want your manager, you don't want your twits, just sort it out and get it done quickly for both parties in my opinion.

MB: The day, the day before the season starts, and whether that's to try and make sure they, they try to keep the team tight and everybody on the team know he's got their backs, but it's been going on for a lot longer than...that Friday. It's been a month.

EW: And I hope he didn't use that as motivation because that would be, managers do weird stuff, but I hope that wasn't part of the equation.

RS: Well it's interesting because Liverpool have been mentioned in relationship with Clint Dempsey, they couldn't score yesterday. Maybe Arsenal in the conversation because he wants to stay with a big club in the Champions League, they couldn't score. You have an Aguero injury with Manchester City (EW points at RS) they have depth bbut stilllllll....Roma, PSG.

BM (talking over EW): Wherever he is, he will do well. I don't care what you say.

WB: No, no

MB: (To Barton) Do you disagree?

WB: No, he's a good player, he's a good player.

MB: He's a determined person, he'll fit in anywhere he can, he adapts so easily.

WB: Brian, you know as well as I do, at big clubs you want good characters. And one thing with Clint is he has good character.

EW: You know what, yesterday, his former manager Stevie Nicols really backed him up saying there's no way he refused to play, he's too much of a pro for that. So I'm in that camp. The other thing about this is, that's been consistant was Champions League football. That's what kept coming up. If that really was the goal, maybe that's where he lands (doesn't mention a specific club in that thought).

RS and EW then have a very brief back and forth about how great that would be to see an American in Champions League football before segueing into the Fulham/Norwich highlights.

Easy enough to see why they re-shot it after re-watching and transcribing the aired piece. The segment in the video above is much cleaner and a little...safer? What aired had incomplete thoughts, a lot of ums and buts and stumbling...but they say some different things so I figured I'd transcribe it here. Couldn't find the video anywhere to link it.

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

The only positive I can think of is after the way Dembele played yesterday Fulham may have to swat away some large offers if they want to keep him. No such problem with Dempsey.

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

The only explanation is that Fulham suddenly increased their valuation of Dempsey and this has prevented any new offers from being considered. So both sides are now stuck waiting to see what happens on the 31st. Fulham will either accept the original fee from a club, a club will relent and fork out the inflated price, or fulham will get nothing when dempsey leaves. Even in that latest interview jol only said dempsey "wants to go to another club so he can't play"; that's not a "we asked him to play and he said no."

Unfortunately this site being down caused me to venture on to other sites and, against my better judgement, read Dempsey threads. Between what they said, what the fans chanted at the norwich game, and the way I suspect the club has treated Dempsey, I'm not sure I will survive this with my support of fulham intact. The dempsey threads on fof echoed the same deluded sense of importance, entitlement, and bigotry that liverpool fans are famous for. I'm disappointed in dempsey too, but only because he wanted to leave Fulham for liverpool. It's difficult to understand why he thought that would be better than fulham. However, I can say this, if Dempsey had done for Liverpool what he has done for fulham, I dont think the scousers would be treating him so poorly.

MLS is where it is at. Nice, happy positive fans.

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

Looking at this from a broader perspective....

Zamora leaves under less than positive terms; Danny departs without much said; Dempsey is in this mess; there are rumblings of Brede being unhappy.

It certainly seems that some of more established players in the squad have had their differences with Jol. Whether it's temperment, tactics, training regiment or something else, you have to wonder if Jol is burning bridges with the veterans in the squad. You certainly want a manager to come in an assert himself, but at what cost?

Personally, I very much like the tactical approach Jol has brought to the team. It's fantastic to see us try to take a match to United at Old Trafford, even if we came up a little short in the end. But, from the evidence, there are definite questions about his player management. I just hope the stories about Demebele don't turn from "I have an opportunity to go to a bigger club" to "I'm unhappy here."

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

At the risk of being highly annoying, I'm gonna stick by my eariler assertions...I don't think he really wants to leave London, there will be brinksmanship on all sides, and he'll end up at Arsenal. One thing's for sure, we'll have some answers by Friday, if not before.

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

This whole thing with CD and Fulham is very disappointing...With an in form CD yesterday, we could have taken Manure...I know, I know...but dang, reality sucks!

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

I am still of the opinion that Dempsey's frustration is with the club's handling of his desire to move and Alistair McIntosh more than with Jol directly for what it is worth. Which is nothing of course.

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

From Heather's link:

Going by what Jol has said, Dempsey has to sit out unless he's willing to commit his future to the club. But why would Dempsey commit if the window's still open? And why would Dempsey want to sit down and talk with Jol about staying if he still wants to test the market? Especially when we know the biggest flurry of activity tends to happen in the final week leading up to the deadline. So he continues to sit out. Meanwhile, since the season has started, Jol has become vocal about the situation. He's already made comments about his frustration over the fact that the season starts before the window closes.

Swansea are doing the same thing with Sinclair, fwiw, but there doesn't seem to be any of the negativity surrounding it. Laudrup mentioned it in the postmatch comments yesterday. He said as long as Sinclair wants to be in the shop window, he'll be held out and they'll prepare without him until the player moves or the window closes. He made it sound like it was no big deal and a pretty standard course of action.

The difference between the Dembele and Dempsey situations is age. Moussa has time on his side to make a move whereas for Clint, it pretty much has to happen now. So I suspect he's forcing the issue more. That and it doesn't sound like Dembele is in the shop window. I don't think that means we won't sell him if/when a big offer comes in, but I believe the club plan on keeping him this year. Or at least until January. Whatever the case, they haven't put the stipulation to him or any of our other players on the last year of their contracts to sit. I can only assume that's b/c they aren't for sale or aren't likely to sell. The only other player the club put up for sale after vacations was Etuhu and he was treated the same as Dempsey has been.

I agree with this. In fact, check your pm Barry, I'm curious about something.

I hope you don't let this happen. You're a valued member of this community Mo, and this situation between a player and club doesn't merit changing your allegiances. It happens in all sports, in every league at some point. You're from Cleveland for crying out loud, you should be used to players leaving and/or clubs mishandling them. As for fans from other sites, the world is full of idiots. We're a little lucky on this one that we genuinely seem to be light of our fair share of them, but then we're not a large group either. I'd like to support Fulham, Dempsey and the Nats without any of those being in conflict, but it may not be that way this year. Tell you what though, if I'm giving something up as a result, it'll be the internet (meaning other sites) before any of the other three. I can't tell what the fans sing most of the time anyway, so no big deal there. The grumbling is actually pretty easy to avoid if you try.

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

Bet you have two replies now because my original reply was stuck in my outbox until I sent the second reply.

I'll echo Matt here. The internet is too full of what my kids would affectionately call "Stupid Heads" to overly worry what people post. Try to keep in mind the offal just closed their message board and some refugees have yet to be sorted out and if that doesn't help then do remember that WE LOVE YOU MO! Besides, who am I going to bicker over Torres with if not you.

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

And Klinsmann!!!

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

No you guys misunderstand. Fulham would still be my team but the rose colored spectacles might come off. I'm probably a "stupid head" for having them on in the first place. I should know that soccer in europe is equivalent the NFL, NBA, etc over here. There is a reason why I stopped "caring" much about those leagues over the years. In contrast, MLS is still relatively innocent and unjaded.

Barry your daughter saying "stupid head" reminds me of my favorite little commercial girl. At 0:21 seconds in.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufw2D8oMJ64[/youtube]

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

I just don't think Dempsey is as innocent as what i'm reading on this board. i think he has handled the situation poorly. I've never understood what holding out gets you. If I'm a potential employer, I wouldn't want you because you're clearly not a team player and only out for yourself. as a current employer, you're just burning bridges and I'm gonna do everything i can to move forward without you. You just look bad from both sides. I think I've always been sad that dempsey would leave fulham, but as a US fan, was ecstatic that he would get to play CL level ball. But Liverpool doesn't get him that. So it just doesnt make sense to me. And I think Jol is quite immature by airing it out in the media. just wish 08/31 would hurry up and get here.

 

Re: The Dempsey and Dembele watch thread

Dtwon, that's how I typically think about players in these situations. Perhaps it's wishful thinking of me to suspect Dempsey's situation is different. However, the reason I do is that he started this off being honest about what he wants for his future and by being very respectful of Fulham - saying some of his best memories are with the club, it doesnt make sense to leave Fulham for a team that crashes out of CL play, etc. He was saying and doing all the right things that you could considering he wanted to leave. He showed up for preseason training on time and went to Germany with the first team. Then the post went up on the FSG/Liverpool site saying he was a Liverpool player and something changed. And the fact that Brian McBride is supporting him on this means something imo - of course McBride also says how great it would be to have him play at Liverpool :angry-banghead:

As far as being a team player, I think his career should be a bigger indication of that than the last month. While he is not the epitome of the team player, for years he always kept his mouth shut and worked his tail off. That, my friend, should count for something.

And yes, wake me up when 8/31 is here.