The inevitiable end to Clint Dempsey's Fulham career is starting to get ugly.
According to reports from England, the club has fined Dempsey an undisclosed amount for refusing to play in Saturday's season opener against Norwich City. This comes hours after Fulham manager Martin Jol claimed that he was leaving Dempsey out of his squad for the match because he had not trained with the club's first team for the last four weeks.
Jol has come to terms with the fact that Dempsey wants out of Craven Cottage, confirming that the club will sell him if the right offer comes forward and saying that Dempsey is not committed to the club anymore and wishes to go elsewhere. He refuses to let Dempsey, the club's leading scorer with 23 goals in all competitions last season, depart at a discounted rate, though. Liverpool was thought to be Dempsey's most serious suitor, but according to Jol, the Reds never made an offer.
"There was never an offer," Jol said Friday. "Clint himself told everyone he was going to Liverpool before he came back, so we really thought there was quite a firm interest in him. Even (Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers) told everyone he was interested in Clint Dempsey, but our people never had an offer on the table, so it's almost embarrassing. If you have shown interest in a player, especially in England, you have to follow it up with an offer. They didn't.
"Maybe Liverpool will come back. I can assure you that our chairman is strong enough. At first we didn't want to get rid of him, later on we had to change our position. But our view is that we won't let Clint Dempsey go on the cheap, that's for sure."
The 29-year-old Dempsey, who has been with Fulham since transferring from the New England Revolution in 2006, has been a fan favorite with the Cottagers and has improved every season he has been with the club. He has scored some of the most important goals in club history — including the goal against Liverpool in 2007 to keep Fulham in the top flight, and his game-winning chip against Juventus in the 2010 Europa League Round of 16 — but he sees this as perhaps his final opportunity to make a move to a club where he can achieve the goal of playing in the UEFA Champions League while still at the top of his game.
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What do you think of this latest development involving Dempsey and Fulham?
Share your thoughts below.
+1
It’s pretty damn difficult to score 20 goals with your butt on a bench.
In other news, Tim Ream blows
Anyone defending Dempsey here is as colossal of a moron as he is. Regardless of what the “real” story is, if you’re a professional who’s under contract for one more piddly little season and your club isn’t going to let you leave, you suck it the hell up and get out there and give it 110%, if for no other reason than that’s how you impress any prospective suitors! A bright player in Deuce’s shoes would do precisely that, well aware that having another good campaign AND being available on a free transfer next season will likely be the ticket to a better situation – and if that better situation fails to materialize, you’ll still be in good stead with your current employer. Behaving like a stubborn, spoiled, petulant little twit, on the other hand, is a good way to end up either slogging it out in League One or crawling back to MLS, at a far lower salary in either case! This much seems quite certain: If Dempsey were comporting himself like a dedicated professional, he’d be on Fulham’s opening-day roster; since he obviously is not, it’s therefore pretty safe to say he has been behaving otherwise! Moreover, Deuce and his outsized ego have gotten quite pissy before when he didn’t get his way right up front with a transfer (just ask the Revs about it!), so it’s hardly a stretch to assume that he could very well be doing so again now. And if (as seems likely) that is in fact the case, he deserves every bad thing that could very well happen to him as a result. Because that’s what every pissy, bridge-burning moron richly deserves!
And this is the only thing that drives me nuts about soccer. A contract is not meaningless but this “I’ll just buy you out” type of mentality kind of urks me. Yes the player and team gets compensated but it makes a contract look meaningless from this fans perspective.
+1
Come back to MLS Clint and I will assure you a huge DP slot with RSL. (pinch
K Bone, you probably don’t even realize it, but pitting Dempsey against Murphy is hilarious. You should check out the joint interview that Dempsey and Murphy gave to one of the British broadcasters last year and listen what Murphy had so say about Dempsey. They have nothing, but great respect and admiration for each other.
Old School, I agree. Don’t forget that he is 29 and just had a fantastic season ending up a top 4 scorer in EPL. If he picks up an injury playing for Fulham this season and scores less goals than he did last seasons, he will be viewed as a 30 year old injury prone player who is declining. It’s one in a lifetime opportunity for Dempsey and given how much he has done for Fulham one would expect them to be a bit more accommodating.
And Greg Seltzer is reporting another English team and a team in Serie A are interested in Dempsey
Clint is exercising a choice. Like with a lot of choices in life, he may have to endure some repercussions, like loss of goodwill (favorite Yank once agaIn McBride), game fitness, USMNT spot, reputation, etc. I’m sure he and his advisors have weighed these things in taking the position he has taken.
I just don’t think teams are knocking down the doors to get at Dempsey. He’s a great player with a knack for finding the goal but he could easily have a huge drought this season.
And Tony Barrett, a writer for the Times, is reporting that Liverpool will not be making a bid for Dempsey. Make of that what you will.
Glad you have such impeachable honor…
You do realize that was sarcasm, right?
Oh ” decrease “. Yea, that really changes your entire post and the point it was making.
Except not really…but please proceed toss around insults. It only “decreases” my level of respect for your opinion.
So a team’s success determines their quality. Got it.
…not really.
This is Dody Fayeed’s fault!!! Instead of giving Dempsey what he wants which is to spend some more and make the club into a Champions League team, he is going to let the talisman and fan favorite just walk away like he is nothing. Fulham owes everything to Dempsey! They should have some more ambition and try to break into the top 5. In order to do that, you have to stop being so damm cheap!!!!
This is simply about: 1) Dempsey wanting to play at a bigger club to grow his skills / experience and 2) to get paid more.
Even if Fulham could pay more, they just can’t offer the same development / opportunity as these other clubs. Fulham has a ceiling. You all know Klinsman loves the fact Clint is doing this and wants to be the best player possible for the US right? We need more players like this vs less.
+1 for Kenny, and OldSchool.
All this “OOoohh. Oooohhh. Contract! Contract! He has to finish his contract” business is odd to me. Not only in perofessional sports, but in every aspect of everything that involves “contracts”, it’s all about negotiation towards an agreement. Contract is a fancy word for agreement, an agreement that is in writing. Dempsey is doing his part, Fullham theirs, to get the best out of the next agreement. The current agreement/contract, like a marriage, was once great, but Clint has seen that the grass is greener elsewhere, and Fullham wants half. You can certainly have your opinion on this, but objectively speaking, contracts like the one Clint is negotiating out of are constructed with the clear knowledge that they will be renegotiated (see buyout clauses as an example, like the one that is keeping Hulk at Porto). It’s professional sports, where player preformance, club need, and availability of funds change all the time. Stop poo-pooing over contracts, like they’re the G.D. arch of the covenant.
so is your reading problem a longstanding deficit or a recent thing?
Seems like both of you need to learn that the way things are done in the rest of the world is not identical to how it’s done in America. Shocking, I know…
I’d be willing to bet Tevez sleeps pretty well at night and laughs all the way to the bank, so I’m not quite sure what your point is.
If anything, newcastle’s run shows exactly why you shouldn’t rule liverpool out of a CL fight.
This time last year, nobody would have predicted newcastle would have a mathematical shot at fourth on the final day.
I’m sure Deuce will be the first one to say he’ll forever be grateful to Fulham. But the guy’s paid back in spades. Probably in the first year itself when he scored the goal against ‘pool to save them from relegation. Since then he’s given it all for the club, improving every year while having to prove his worth all over again to all the managers who came and went at Craven Cottage.
I’d say its time for Fulham to let him go so he can have a shot at top level football.
Of course there is another perspective to the story. However, it doesn’t change the fact Clint is refusing to play for Fulham or the fact that Fulham are within their rights to keep Clint for the year, just as Clint can refuse to play. Frankly, I think both sides are pursuing their agendas somewhat foolishly, but que sera.
That’s not how it works, Clint
You signed a contract for a number of years and can’t just quit half way because you feel like it. Not lack of playing time, no disrespect from the manager, no lack of love from the fans. You really don’t have a case.
Man up and finish your obligations and then you can do whatever you want.
All you guys bashing Dempsey—can’t frickin’ believe it. Dempsey has done the right thing on all this from the very beginning and Jol has been nothing but jerk and Fulham has treated Clint like $hi+. Can’t wait to see Fulham in the Championship League next year.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dempsey has just tweeted two messages:
“There are two sides to the story.”
“The truth will come out soon.”
http://twitter.com/clint_dempsey
Neither side needs to be ‘blamed.’ They’re both using whatever leverage they have to secure their best interests.
The lesson from this whole thing is how groundless most transfer speculation is. People here actually think there’s going to be a bidding war between arsenal and liverpool.
Four way fight for fourth (implying a possibility at the least) is still closer to CL than a four way fight for seventh.
I wouldn’t put it past you…
People also seem to be naive as to how things work in Europe. Contracts are re-negotiated ALL THE TIME. Usually this happens still while there are 2 or more years left on it. This is very different from US sports. Though people hold out all the time looking for a better deal.
Clint is 29 years old. There aren’t too many 29 year olds who play out the final year of their contracts. Normally, they would’ve had a new contract in place, but he wants to move on.
So, we’re left with this game. The same game that RvP played, and Luka Modric is still playing. The clubs have every right to wait for an offer that meets their valuation. But for all Clint has done, it seems they might avoid going down the road of fining him and making him out to be a huge villain.
Yeah, this is what worries me the most. Al-Fayed is a complete nutter. Exhibit A: Michael Jackson statue. I don’t think most Fulham fans are too keen on Al-Payed, and if there is a type of person who would screw with a player out of spite, it’s Fayed.
That’s my point genius, he has so much more experience than Dempsey. He’s won a lot more trophies than Dempsey has. Of course, Dempsey’s won nothing that I’m aware of in England, so that’s not saying much. If Murphy was American, he would easily have been an integral part of our national team. Nice try though…
Fulfilling the obligations of a contract is most definitely NOT a moral issue, or an issue of how “manly” one is. Contracts state agreements of consideration from both sides in exchange. They are always renegotiated, altered, and even broached with regularity, both in sports and in every other field.
Obviously if one party to a contract announces that they have no intention to continue under current contract conditions, the other party is not required to fulfill their part of the deal, either, and in some cases can recover damages, if there are any.
This isn’t a blood pact, it’s business.
I didn’t realize this until I read FulhamDC’s post up above, but the owner and chairman of of Fulham is Mohamed Al-Fayed, the famous billionaire. And when Jol (verbally) attacked Dempsey today in the press conference he said: ”We’ve got a chairman who’s quite strong and if we get the right price we will sell him and if not he’ll stay here.” So in other words, the fate of America’s best soccer player is in the hands of Mohamed Al-Fayed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Al-Fayed
My line was it “decreases my sympathy,” not that I have none. I’d like to see Clint on a bigger team, on a Champs League team. Why did they have to resolve anything? Maybe they decided they would rather have him for a season and then let him go for free, and what is wrong with that? We can disagree with the stance, but he is under contract for the year and refusing to play.
That’s because the majority of the big names are aging stars that won’t have big transfer fees anymore and are winding down their career…