Fulham manager Martin Jol has urged Clint Dempsey to stay at Craven Cottage.
The 29-year-old attacking midfielder has scored 22 goals this season and is one of the main reasons Fulham are sitting in 10th place in the Barclays Premier League table without any relegation worries. Dempsey, however, has one year left on his contract and Jol, who lost Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United for £30m when he managed Tottenham, fears that a big club could come in with an offer for the United States international which Fulham could not turn down.
Jol said: “If you have a year to go it is hard to keep someone. If you want to keep him on a contract until it will finish that will be a difficult situation for him and for us.
“That is the main priority I want to focus on. Can we keep him? We have made him a good offer and we have to wait and see until the summer.
“But I told him (on Thursday) that I would love him to stay here at least as long as I am here.
“He’s had some season. He can score from all angles in the box and he can even score when he is not playing up front. I am very happy he is there. We are talking to him and hopefully we will get it right.”
Jol, recognising that interest in Dempsey is likely to peak in the summer transfer window, added: “It depends on the club that is coming in. At Spurs I had the same situation with Berbatov, if it is a big club then maybe you have a little problem.”
