Fulham

Clint Dempsey firing warning shots across Fulham’s bow – May 25th 2012

Beware Fulham fans, these quotes are going to leave with you a sense of inevitability.

This is Clint Dempsey discussing his desire to play in the Champions League:

I am grateful for everything Fulham have done for me, some of the best memories I have in soccer have been there, but the fact remains that I want to play in Champions League. I want to play at the highest level possible.

I want to do as much as I can in my career and look back and say I made the most of all the opportunities I have had.

I am always going to want to play in Champions League.

It is something I have never done. I would like to test myself at that level. That way I can look back and say, ‘Hey, I gave it a go. Either I was good enough or I wasn’t good enough”‘

If I wanted to be comfortable, I would have stayed in the MLS, because I would have been closer to my family and friends, and I would have been used to the way of life.

I am a risk-taker. I want to throw myself in the deep end and see if I can swim.”

The ‘Champions League’ excuse is wearing pretty thin now. Players talk about it as if it’s an entire season’s worth of fixtures, and to not take part in it would be to leave an enormous hole in their footballing CV.

And actually, in terms of testing yourself, playing Premier League or La Liga football for a side who don’t have the resources to compete with Manchester City, Barcelona, or Real Madrid is a far greater test than steamrolling some minnows in the Champions League group stages.

If you want to play for a bigger club, then say that – don’t dress it up in this Champions League rhetoric.

Clint Dempsey is a good player, that’s a point that has been made frequently on this site. He needs to be very careful, because his form and success at Fulham has been achieved under conditions that won’t be replicated at other clubs.

At Craven Cottage, the American goes out every week as the focal point of the side, and is integral to everything Martin Jol’s team do well. That’s not going to be the case at a Liverpool, Arsenal or Paris Saint Germain, where he’ll be ‘one of many’, a small fish in a big pond, asked to perform on demand and replaced if he doesn’t.

Some players just aren’t capable of making that adjustment, and are far too quick to assume that the grass is greener at the bigger clubs.

Dempsey seems like he has his heart set on leaving, and that would drive me crazy if I was a Fulham fan. Martin Jol is building something quite exciting down by the river, and all of a sudden it’s going to be derailed because his best player wants to go and play fifteen games a season for a Champions League club.

If he does leave, it will be to his own detriment.

Clint Dempsey’s 2012/12 – April 14th 2012

What a season for the American.

What 2011/12 has shown, is that Clint Dempsey is an elite level Premier League performer. The caveat to that, as touched on before here, is that it doesn’t necessarily follow that he’s suited to playing for a Manchester United or Arsenal-sized club.

Dempsey’s likely to feature a lot in the Summer gossip columns, but doing anything but commit himself to Fulham for the rest of his stay in European football could be a big mistake. Why be a bit-part when you can be a focal point?

Hopefully he stays at Craven Cottage.

Fulham looking to complete Pogrebnyak deal – April 12th 2012

This is from ESPN, so a pretty good source. They report that Fulham and Stuttgart have began negotiations to finalise a permanent deal for on-loan forward Pavel Pogrebnyak.

Good, because it would have left a sour taste in the mouth had the Russian used Fulham as a stepping stone into English football – allowed the South West Londoners to take all the risk – and then done a runner to a bigger club at the end of his loan contract.

I don’t think there’s anybody who hasn’t been impressed by the forward since he arrived in January, and you have to think that with a pre-season under his belt, he’s going to be even more impactful next year – and that can’t be bad considering he already resembles a footballing version of a Rocky villain.

“Yes, the negotiations about my contract with Fulham have already begun. My agent has already talked to the management of the club and I think there’s a big chance that I will stay in England.

Me, the coach and the management, we are all solid on the question regarding my future.”

The article does point out that there’s some interest from Aston Villa, but frankly, who in their right mind wants to go there at the moment? No money, no players, no ambition, no point.

Some keys to the off-season for Fulham…

– Get this deal done.

– Keep hold of Moussa Dembele and Clint Dempsey.

– Get a new right-back.

If those three get ticked off, Martin Jol is going to be a long-way towards making a mockery of Mark Hughes’s decision to leave the club – if he hasn’t already done that.

Clint Dempsey to Man United or Arsenal? Be careful with your career Yankee – April 10th 2012

It sounds like Clint Dempsey is going to have a decision to make at the end of the season, as rumours of interest from Manchester United and Arsenal gather momentum.

Clint Dempsey is a really good player. Clint Dempsey is in really good form. However, the combination of those aspects doesn’t necessarily predicate that a move to a top-tier club is the right move for the American’s career.

Dempsey, to me, is an example of a talented performer thriving at an appropriate level – he’s the key performer for a mid-level side, and he’s integral to everything his club does on the pitch.

Some players need to be that guy. Some players need to have the complete loyalty of the crowd.

If the American decides to trade in his status at Fulham and take his chances at one of the Premier League’s elite clubs, he will automatically become a bit-part contributor, a ‘one of many’. Clint Dempsey wants to be thinking long and hard about what that might do to his career.

It’s the trade-off between playing every week and being truly loved by a set of fans, or having Arsenal or Manchester United on his football CV and maybe an extra medal on a mantelpiece in Texas in ten years time.

This season especially, Dempsey has carved a reputation for being one of the most dynamic all-purpose forwards in the league – but he really shouldn’t underestimate how much of that is due to having a team built around him at Craven Cottage. At Old Trafford, or the Emirates, he’s going to be required to fit into an alien system and perform immediately, otherwise his place will go to somebody that can.

Martin Jol will be urging his talisman to stay on the banks of the Thames next year, and he would do well to remind his forward of what kind of impact leaving Fulham would have on Dempsey’s legacy in England. It’s not about whether he’s good enough to be playing for one club or another, it’s about the role he would have there – Dempsey at Fulham is a crucial player, Dempsey in the Top 4 would probably be a talented, but ultimately novelty, American

What seems like an easy decision is actually far from it.

Pavel Pogrebnyak ready to commit to Fulham – March 29th 2012

Pavel Pogrebnyak has confirmed that he wants to stay at Craven Cottage after the expiration of his loan contract.

“I need a coach like Jol and would love to stay in England and continue to work with him,” he said.

A conversation with the club’s leadership will be held in the near future.

The English game is faster than in Germany, and there are a lot of battles. But I think I’ve got used to it.”

Good. Because, regardless of who you support, nobody wants to see a player being given a chance by one club, and then using it to secure a lucrative move to another team further up the pyramid.

I’m a huge fan of Pogrebnyak; he’s the perfect focal point of Fulham’s forward line. Bobby Zamora may have scored a lot of goals, but the Russian is a much more complete footballer and seems to gel seamlessly with Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele.

Give him a full pre-season, and this guy is going to be even more of a threat.

Excellent – let’s hope this does actually get done.