courtesy: mlssoccer.com |
Clint Dempsey is having another
fantastic – and well-documented – season for Fulham. In fact,
his conspicuous excellence for three successive managers in concert
with a slowly expiring contact (June 2013) mean England's
most scurrilous have started to chirrup about a potential move to
a “bigger” club.
Is he good enough? Can he deliver in
the Champions League?
In all honesty, it's unlikely to
matter.
The simple fact is that Clint Dempsey
may move on from Fulham, but it is hardly likely to be for a
significant fee. He is caught in a quandary where his age (29) and
skill-set (floating attacker) make him cute
to suitors – the quote-unquote “bigger” clubs – but
not that attractive.
That
said, not ₤12-15
million attractive, which is a sum nearing that for which Fulham are
likely to ask.
The
Whites will have to ask for that significant price for many reasons.
Because he's been their most
potent attacking threat in nearly half a century and debatably
their best player (not
wash-up) since Johnny Haynes. Dempsey, rapping
an' all, is one of – if not the – most marketable Fulham
players and continues a great recent Fulham tradition of attracting a
rather large market across the Atlantic.
And he
provided the goal or assist for 49% of all Fulham's Premiership
scores this year. That level of contribution is
amongst Europe's elite.
Yet
despite the plaudits and numbers, Dempsey's signature will hardly
going to inspire fan confidence for a side that spends big on him.
“Big” club fans to want reputations as well as proven history –
witness the negative reaction to the solid Mikel
Arteta signing for Arsenal. Spending the kind of cash Fulham
would demand for a guy who would in effect become a bit-part player,
doesn't look like good
business. This is even more true considering the transfer-induced
boost in Dempsey's salary, would be accompanied by occasional games
rather than the week-in, week-out football which allowed him to
blossom at Craven Cottage.
Should
he hope for a move, “Deuce” can however rely on one redeeming
factor. Despite football's Moneyball manifesto dying an inglorious
Red death, there is one statistic which regularly translates to
success: proven
goalscoring ability. Papiss Demba Cisse, Demba Ba and Yakubu
have elegantly proven this season that the ability to score goals at
a top European league (especially in the Premiership) is worth the
investment.
Despite
this, it's hard to see Clint Dempsey leaving West London this summer.
While he could perhaps thicken his wallet, it's hard to see any club
willing to pay him and a likely upscale transfer fee.
No comments:
Post a Comment