Perhaps I’m just naive, but it hurts every time I hear something like this.
In five years I’d like to say I’d be with a big club trying to win trophies.
Especially from Clint Dempsey, who has been so impressive for Fulham this season.
I suppose you can’t expect too much loyalty from footballers these days, but it would be nice if they’d refrain from referring to ‘big clubs’ in comparison to one they play for.
I’ve now seen this quote in a couple different places but wonder if you could provide the whole article. Extracted from context, I can understand the worry. It must be said, however, that this is exactly the sort of thing that I think ALL footballers should be saying.
What has always marked Clint’s career is an unashamed focus on plying his trade at the best possible level and this sort of comment fits nicely into that narrative. While Fulham supporters might want him to say, “I’d like to be winning trophies with Fulham” it is certainly better to say what he said than something like, “In five years I would like to have had a half-decent career, be playing with a League One side who overpays me in hopes I can reproduce past glories, and be spending most of my time drawing up plans for a holiday home in East Texas.” Right?
I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately, and I really wouldn’t be surpised if Dempsey was sold this summer.
Not because Fulham want to make a quick buck, but because a bigger team in England, outside the big 4, or elsewhere could shell out 10-15 million on him without blinking.
And would we be foolish not to take that amount?
I think that Clint will be sold after next season or during the winter break. After playing at such a high level over multiple seasons he will have real value to the “big clubs” and would be in line for a new contract not long after that so the timing could be right for FFC to capitalize on his value.
I would love to see him play well for a big club, play in CL games and the like. That said, I think that FFC could contend in the FA and Carling cups and getting deep in Europa League could quench his thirst for some silverware.
Same comment I left on CCN…
Guess it depends on what Clint wants to do with his career.
1. Stay with a club the size of Fulham, get plenty of playing time and perhaps one day become one of the club’s “legends”
2. Play for a big club, go the the champions league, compete for domestic cups…all while playing maybe 10-15 minutes per game.
Phil: Sorry there seemed to be a problem with the WordPress software yesterday. All my links were off for a while, even with the right HTML coding. If you click on the linked text above, it should take you to the article. Yes, I’d agree ambition is a good thing and your sentiment is right but I suppose I’d like Dempsey to prove that he’s worth a spot at a ‘big club’ (whatever that means) by giving us a few more seasons like this one.
Timmy: I sincerely doubt anyone would pay £10-15m for Dempsey. He’s good, but he’s not that good. I suspect his market value would be closer to what we got for Bullard.
ArmyofDad: I’m just not sure Clint’s ready for the CL yet. You are certainly right about Fulham going further in the Cup competitions and perhaps Europe too. That might convince some of our better players to stay for a little longer.
Jason: I think the days of players staying with clubs for large spells of their career are over, particularly in England where you can largely predict the order in which sides will finish pretty accurately at the start of the season. I honestly don’t think he’d be good enough to be a regular in a Champions’ League side.
All that aside, let’s hope he can find a couple of great goals to put Villa to the sword today. He’s got a great rapport with the fans, something he might endanger if he continues to talk so openly about wanting to move on.