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Dempsey left out of Fulham squad for Saturday’s clash with Manchester United

ClintDempsey (GettyImages)

The Clint Dempsey saga at Fulham continues.

The U.S. national team star will not play for the Cottagers in their upcoming showdown with Manchester United, having been left out of the squad for Saturday's showdown.

The transfer rumor mill has gone very quiet on Dempsey, with a long-rumored move to Liverpool looking less and less like a possibility by the day. In fact, Fulham has lodged a formal complaint against Liverpool for unsettling their leading scorer by publicly acknowledging interest in Dempsey without ever making a formal bid.

Fulham manager Martin Jol has spoken about wanting Dempsey to stay at Fulham, and has extended an olive branch in that regard, but with Dempsey clearly wanting to leave the club it looks as though the situation remains unresolved as we stand just a week before the close of the summer transfer window.

What do you think of this development? Starting to think Dempsey will stay at Fulham? Still holding out hope that a big club makes a bid for him? Where would you like to see him wind up?

Share your thoughts below.

 

Comments

  1. Disgusting! Fair weather fans! I’ve followed Clint since his rookie season in MLS, this isn’t the first time Fulham has done this to him. August ’09 Clint was pressured to sign another contract after being froze out of the team (the same season he lead Fulham to a Europa League Final against Athletico Madrid). Back then it wasn’t as obvious to the world that Clint was a serious offensive threat no matter the opponent…last season finally established that without a doubt. Imagine you are a sports team with a player who doesn’t want to play for you, and he happens to be worth a ton of money. Would you (A) play him and risk injury, then you have to foot the bill for his recovery right before he signs with another club while you get no monetary compensation, or (B) finally accept that you have to move on and cash out? Easy to see that (B) is the best option. It’s just unfortunate that Mohamed Al-Fayed and Jol are so vindictive.
    I suggest people read up on Mohamed Al-Fayed, learn about how he lead a brutal lie filled take over of Harrods, or how he eventually stole from the previous top guy at Harrods (Roland Rowland) safe deposit box got caught and was forced to pay Rowland’s widow compensation, how about the time he paid off members of parliament to lobby for his business (the MP’s he bribed were subsequently fired, disgraced, and Parliament passed a new law to stop something of this magnitude to never happen again…dubbing it the “cash for questions affair” and after it the questions failed he turned everyone in…just ratted them out so he wouldn’t have to pay them). He is a ruthless businessman who when he doesn’t get his way he sets out to destroy everyone who stopped him.
    It’s a shame so many people blindly follow this guy in his attempt to bully Clint. Hats off to Clint for staying out of the whole thing and just waiting for his next chance to prove to the world that he can put the ball in the back of any net no matter what other 21 players are on the field.

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  2. The fact is none of you guys know what has been said behind the scenes and what actually happened.

    And without real live facts everything you all just said could be BS.

    All this sound and fury is a little misplaced and until the entire story comes out, it is probably best not to pass judgement on Clint, Jol and the Fulham managment.

    Everyone involved is a professional with their own agendas and this has been playing out for over a year.

    I’m not inclined to believe anything about either side until its over, except for this.

    Whenever they say it’s not about the money, it is always about the money.

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  3. at what point does this translate to Dempsey’s fitness and game shape? that ultimately translates to a drop in his stock and makes teh prosepct of Fulham getting their due even more unlikely.

    Could an MLS team arrange some kind of loan while this BS is sorted out I wonder?

    Oh, and greed sucks. Truly brings out the worst in humanity in every aspect, even though this is a fairly begnign example of it, just a reminder of how it sucks..

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  4. The Mirror is a tabloid, and that article offers no quotes or sources. It isn’t even worth considering. The Michael Jackson statue and the Mark Hughes stuff is simply irrelevant. You bring up Dembele and Hangeland, both of whom are still playing for Fulham. What exactly has Fulham done that suggests they are difficult to do business with?

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  5. Thanks everyone. It’s a bad situation for the club and much as I was encouraged by last week’s performance, I think we come down to earth this Saturday.

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  6. True about Modric, but he made it clear last summer that he wanted to move to Madrid, but still had the decency to play last season when a deal wasn’t worked out. Tottenham is holding up the inevitable transfer trying to get more money, so they get blame there. Fulham, on the other hand, aren’t holding up any move because Liverpool never made an offer.

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  7. How do I know there have been no offers? Have you been paying attention at all? It’s no secret that no teams have made an offer. That’s exactly why there’s such a controversy – because Liverpool made it known they wanted him, even claimed he was already signed on their website, but never got around to actually making an offer. But, hey, don’t take my word for it, here’s a Fox Sports story from today about it: http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/premierleague/story/clint-dempsey-misses-manchester-united-match-fulham-say-no-bid-from-liverpool-082312

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  8. It’s not that simple. You can’t force a club to purchase a player just because you’re in charge of negotiating his contracts. Dempsey is under contract, therefore Fulham first have to agree to sell him before his agent can do anything. All the agent can do is call around to guage interest. The interested clubs already bid for Dempsey, and Fulham refused to sell.

    Why would Jol say Dempsey didn’t refuse to play? Why would Dempsey still be held out of the lineup if he hadn’t refused to play? Answer these questions, and you’ll begin to see the truth of this whole debacle.

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  9. I said it the other day and will say it again, Clint needs to fire his agent. He stated that he wanted to play CL football a long time ago. The agent should have been able to find a team that met that requirement after the season Dempsey had last year. Now the season has started and both Fulham and Clint look bad.

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  10. The price tag Fulham put on his head for the transfer fee has limited the teams that would have an interest. Hoping another good performance by Fulham (although unlikely) against Man U. could lower the asking fee if they see they can do without Dempsey….If they get blown away, I am betting Clint is spending at least 1/2 a season with Fulham…..He is now looking desperate and is at the mercy of Fulham. I would like to see the “next level” EPL teams take a look at him….Fulham needs to help with that transfer fee…

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  11. Interesting studio chat on espnfc where they talk about the situation. Stevie Nichol (the same guy who coached Clint at NE Revolution before he moved to Fulham) flatly doesn’t believe that he’s refusing to play. Seems to have 100% faith in Dempsey.

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  12. So after Liverpool lowballs him, and he sits on the bench while Joe Cole or Jonjo Shelvey gets to play, Clint will be happier than he is now?

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  13. Fulham KNOW Dempsey will not return to play for the team. If Fulham want to realize any money from a transfer fee, thay must sell him NOW. during the winter transfer period his transfer fee will be a third or less of what it is now. Fulham got greedy and set the fee to high initially, by setting it lower he would have attracted more suitors and begun a bidding war. As it is now, most clubs who will want him will wait until the last few hours to make a legitimate bid, as only them will Fulham have to come down in price or lose all value of the transfer fee completely.

    This is standard stuff when a valuable player wants to make a move to another team. The only “fly-in-the-ointment” is Dempsey’s insistence that he wants to play, not just for a bigger club, but for a Champion’s League team, of which there are fewer suitors.

    I fully expect Dempsey to sign for Arsenal or Liverpool and if those fall through, I expect AS ROMA to come in at around 5-6 Million pounds.

    But I also expect things to heat up the last wee,

    Already we have seen linkages to the “bottom feeders” West Ham or Sunderland who only stand to gain a player like Dempsey IF Fulham wants to unload, quickly, an unhappy player. Unfortunately for those teams, they do not mee Dempsey’s criteria. and he is NOT that desperate.

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  14. Well put, Chris. I also am flabbergasted by the Clint bashing, although some of the poster names doing the bashing appear to be new names, leading me to believe they are trolls swooping in and then swooping out.

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  15. Wow. That is a masterpiece of a post, FulhamDC. Not only written like a pro, but very informative and from the heart. Thanks a lot.

    I have the feeling that something really rotten is happening within the club, and Clint has been the lightening rod for all of it. Good thing he is tough guy. What surprises me is that no other players are speaking up on his behalf. They must be afraid, and I would not be surprised if some of them also would like to jump ship. But by remaining silent they are only increasing chances that management will bully them also in the future.

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  16. Agree 100% – I wouldn’t put it past MAF that the tapping up complaint is just a tactic in making Liverpool meet their asking price. Sort of, bait and switch. They have ‘Pool’s balls in a vice with the FA – make a good deal, it all goes away.

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  17. There is an investigation of improper dealings between ‘Pool and Clint Dempsey’s agent. Anything he says will be used as evidence in the investigation

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  18. Dembele hasnt expressed his intent to go anywhere else and has not asked to leave so you can’t compare he and Dempsey. Also this started a long time ago when Fulham told Dempsey to train on his own and that he would not be apart of their preseason. My guess is that they did this because they figured he would be sold before the season started.

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  19. I also think Clint has handled this badly from a professional standpoint. He should have immediately backpedaled when his desire to play for a Champion’s League club became news. He ended up limiting the number of teams that would bid for him. So any Champion’s League clubs that wanted to bid for Clint knew they could low-ball Fulham.

    In addition, his lack of comments regarding Fulham (especially politically-correct ones) make it seem like staying with them is not an option. This also keeps offers low. Even if Fulham wanted to sell Clint at the start of the transfer window, having fewer offers come in (for lower amounts) couldn’t make them happy.

    I’m not blaming Clint for this mess — Fulham (and Jol) deserve plenty of blame — I’m just saying he could have done a few simple things to improve his situation. Having said all this, I obviously don’t have near the information that Clint and his agent do, so hopefully they have a plan. I think when the truth comes out this will make an interesting story; Hopefully someday Clint can look back on it without getting pissed off.

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  20. Report: “Fulham has complained about Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers to the Premier League over the club’s pursuit of striker Clint Dempsey.”

    Cry me a river. Poor business Fulham. Should have sold him when you had the chance at likely twice the rate.

    …a bid WAS made. Unless Jol was lying about that, too. Can’t keep track of what he’s being deceitful nowdays.

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  21. I have to agree. If Dempsey is willing to train and play, he needs to shout it. Otherwise, it looks to be all on him. Where is his agent, who seems to be useless, when Dempsey needs him for advice?

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  22. This. Facts. Love it.

    The club has a history of just screwing people when it doesn’t suit their business interests regardless of outcome.

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  23. Wow i cant believe the fans on here bashing clint dempsey. Hes been extremely professional in this matter and a couple of false statements is all it takes for you to turn your back on our best player? I expected a lot more from our fans but then again these probably are the same people that said donovan, dempsey, bradley, jozy, and shea werent good or never would be good. Clint Dempsey made it clear he wanted to move last year but stayed due to the clubs wishes and had his best season yet. He refused to cave in and sign an extension and Fulham held him out of training looking to cash in on him and keep him injury free. Liverpool showed strong interest but wasnt willing to pay his price tag and now Fulham is blaming Clint for not extending his contract.

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  24. LOL the redsox invested 100 million fee + contract in Dice K, 50 + in Jon lackey and another 57+ million in Carl Crawford and they can’t get a few dollars for Clint.

    They should liquidate LPFC and rebuild the Bosox

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  25. What would really be justice is if Clint played or sat out the season and Fulham got a big FAT nothing at the end of the season when he left for FREE. That it’s in both parties interest to move him seems lost on many

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  26. This whole mess is completely absurd now. I just don’t believe that Clint has said any of the things attributed to him, and that Fulham’s management has messed things up here. No one remembers articles that appeared in the English press a week before the season started where it was claimed that Jol planned to “freeze out” Dempsey by not starting him in the opener. Here’s a link to one of those articles:

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-transfers-clint-dempsey-dropped-1252329

    Then, the day before the season starts, all of a sudden its “Dempsey refuses to play” and “Dempsey’s on strike”. Bull.

    Chairman al-Fayed will always be a Fulham legend, he bought the club, invested more than a hundred million pounds of his own money, and took them up 2 leagues to the Premiership in just 5 years. But as he has aged, he’s become a little more difficult to deal with. Look back to last year, when he dedicated the statue of Michael Jackson on the oldest Football ground in London. There, he said, “If some stupid fans don’t understand and appreciate such a gift this guy gave to the world they can go to hell. I don’t want them to be fans.” Nice.

    A couple of months later we saw the negotiations with Mark Hughes. When Hodgson left, 2 summers ago, al-Fayed wanted Martin Jol, but wouldn’t pay the 5 million euro buyout cost on his contract, so he “settled” for Mark Hughes – gave him a year with an option for a second. After leading Fulham to its second highest points totals ever, and a Europa League spot, al-Fayed offered Hughes LESS money for the second year. Mostly because Jol was now available. Hughes walks and al-Fayed gets his man.

    Move forward to this summer and Dempsey. The club makes an effort to sign Dempsey to a new contract, but it is said that they will not go beyond their sacred “wage cap”, rumored to be 50,000 pounds a week. While that’s a tremendous amount of money, it’s still 20,000 ppw less than Joey Barton makes! If the club isn’t willing to exceed its wage cap for their all-time premier league goals leader, where is there any room to negotiate?

    Now the only option on the table is to sell him, but it’s doubtful Fulham will get what they feel he is worth. It also ties Jol’s hands because without selling Dempsey, he’s got very little funds for the transfer market. At this point, weeks ago, they were finished with Dempsey. So much so, that the package I received 10 days ago with my membership materials (the membership card is also my “ticket” to get in to the stadium for matches) features photos of most of the team and the cottage. It’s not the most dazzling package you’ll ever see, but I’m sure it took a few weeks to put together, but yet doesn’t feature a single photo of their two-time player of the year.

    I love Fulham, but this has blown up in their face, and now all that’s left is for them is to file a weak complaint against Liverpool. Beyond Dempsey, both Moussa Demebele and Brede Hangeland have only a year left on their contracts as well, and neither has signed a new deal. Nobody can say for sure what really went on behind the scenes, but the fact is Fulham is an increasingly difficult club to do business with, and as a fan I’m very afraid this summer has cemented that reputation.

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  27. So no offers have been made for Clint and you know this how? and this is ALL Clint’s fault, really? and you know this because your directly involved in this matter? probably not.

    Clint has one career as a soccer player and he really needs to do what’s best for Clint and his family. Fulham as a business has an endless business life in theory

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  28. but if Dempsey IS pulling a Modric, why haven’t Fulham fined him or done anything other than not play him? If it were all on Clint wouldn’t it make sense that they would have done something to that effect?

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