Clint Dempsey- Fulham

[Brophs]

wHAT DEAL?

LiVErpOOl

 

[1999united2008]

Dempsey is a good move for any club imo, has been incredibly consistent for Fulham and is a versatile winger/AM.

hopefully he flops if he is going to one of our rivals though

 

[Randall Flagg]

You can nearly predict that he will flop at a bigger side.

I think he is a cracking player, but perfectly suited as the big fish at a club like Fulham

 

[KM]

Clint was not involved over the last four weeks so he is not going to be in the squad," said Jol.

"He is not committed to the club. He wants to leave.

"I would like to keep him, but I think it's impossible. It's a sad and an almost embarrassing situation.

"There was never an offer. 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 (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."

cnutish by Liverpool.

 

[ciderman9000000]

"If you have shown interest in a player, especially in England, you have to follow it up with an offer."

Since when?

 

[Pogue Mahone]

cnutish by Liverpool.

cnutish by Liverpool. Grossly unprofessional by Dempsey.

 

[steeeb]

So where will he be off? I want him in my fantasy football team, but not if he fecks off abroad.

 

[Sassy Colin]

That explains why he's shown as 'injured - lack of match fitness' on FF.

 

[Antisocial]

I'm surprised, I didn't expect him to pull a stroke like this.

I agree - I'm quite surprised by his behaviour. Would Liverpool be instructing him to act like this to force his price down? Fulham can't be asking that much for him.

 

[prateik]

Al Fayed is a crazy mofo.
He'll probably hold on to Dempsey for the lulz if Liverpool try to lowball Fulham.

 

[Eyepopper]

Jesus, what a wanker, hope Fulham sue him for breach of contract if he's refusing to play.

 

[peterstorey]

The ideal solution would be to cancel his contract and retain his registration. That would teach the cnut.

 

[Beachryan]

He should go to Chelsea. Wouldn't even have to move house.

 

[gooDevil]

One journo is suggesting Liverpool could not afford to bring in Dempsey, even though the difference was only, apparently, £2m.

Spoiler

The extent of the financial constraints on Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool was laid bare on Friday night as the club's owners, Fenway Sports Group, failed to agree a deal with Fulham for Clint Dempsey. The collapse of the United States international's proposed move to Anfield leaves Liverpool with only two senior forwards – Luis Suárez and Fabio Borini – until the transfer window reopens in January.

In another day of wage reductions at Anfield, Rodgers released three more players – Charlie Adam, Jay Spearing and Nathan Eccleston – but that was not enough for his employers to meet Fulham's demands for a minimum £5m fee for Dempsey. Fulham claim Liverpool offered only £3m for the American, who became the second Rodgers' target this summer to sign instead for Tottenham Hotspur following Gylfi Sigurdsson.

Fenway Sports Group had misgivings over paying a substantial fee for a 29-year-old despite Dempsey, who scored 23 goals last season, doing his utmost to force a move to Merseyside. He had informed Aston Villa, who agreed a £5m plus add-ons transfer with Fulham, that he wished to join only Liverpool.

A proposed move to cover the departure of Andy Carroll with the loan signing of Daniel Sturridge also collapsed when the Chelsea striker insisted on leaving Stamford Bridge on a permanent basis. Rodgers had revived his interest in the former Manchester City forward when Chelsea dropped their demands for a £15m transfer and became open to a loan deal, but Sturridge's stance ended Liverpool's pursuit.

Rodgers removed approximately £8m from Liverpool's wage bill in the final 24 hours of the transfer window and raised a further £4m from the sale of Adam to Stoke City plus loan fees. The sum would have been higher but proposed loan deals for Daniel Pacheco to join Real Valladolid and Danny Wilson to Blackpool did not go through. Blackpool did sign Eccleston on loan while Spearing moved to Bolton Wanderers for the remainder of the season.

The Liverpool manager had conceded there was an element of risk in allowing Carroll to join West Ham United on loan without having a replacement secured but did not envisage the decision back-firing so spectacularly. "I've been given as much confidence as I can possibly get that we will have someone to come in," he said in the wake of Carroll's exit on Thursday night.

On Friday afternoon Rodgers was confident of signing "one or two to reinforce the group" but also warned; "Does it [the departures] free up a lot of money for me to bring in other players? Probably not. We need to work on the finances at the moment."

The Northern Irishman had a deal for Dempsey lined up all summer – the Liverpool chairman, Tom Werner, said in May that "any team would be lucky to have Clint Dempsey playing on their squad" – but even with the American pushing for a move to Anfield the club were unable to complete a deal.

Rodgers had to explain his reasoning for wanting Dempsey at the club to Liverpool's owners in a phone-call following the aggregate defeat of Hearts in the Europa League play-off on Thursday. A proposed exchange deal involving Jordan Henderson was also mooted only for the Liverpool midfielder to reject a move to Craven Cottage.

The Liverpool manager was handed a transfer budget of £20m plus monies raised through player sales when he replaced Kenny Dalglish in June. That went on the signings of Borini, Joe Allen, Oussama Assaidi and the 18-year-old striker Samed Yesil, while Nuri Sahin also arrived on loan from Real Madrid.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/sep/01/liverpool-fail-clint-dempsey-financial-constraints

Should this maybe go in a Liverpool thread instead?