Fulham have just paid 11 million quid for forward who has never played in the Premier League....... They also got about 63 million quid from tv last season - Seems they are willing to spend. Would be an odd move though.
Entirely possible that both are right. Besler could have been led to believe that a bid was in or going to be in, Sunderland could have changed their minds. Young has probably asked his sources who said no bid has gone in and one won't be. Truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
Why? An old team. A legendary stadium. An owner with a lot of money. London. An American coach, of sorts.
Transfer fee is one thing, wages are another. What does Besler care about a transfer fee unless his horribly one sided contract miraculously included a percentage of any transfer fee, which seems unlikely. Unless Fulham want to quintuple his current wages and guarantee them for 4-5 years, he would be silly to go as he is likely to get a heck of a lot more from SKC in a new contract compared to his old one.
The EPL clubs are more likely to pay more and not just because they get crap loads more in revenues but also because it doesn't upset their salary structure. In the Championship, if a player is making 7-figures (even in dollars), he better be a star.
If you are paying a good size transfer fee, teams are usually gonna pay decent wages as well. Besler makes what $200k a year? Which is currently about 116000 pounds a year. Multiplied by 5 is 580000 pounds a year. Shade over 11000 pounds a week. Seems reasonable to me for a recently relegated club with money to spend. Your mileage may vary.
Local guy with direct contacts at club... so prolly reliable... Also, Sunderland have pretty much said that they aregoing to be tightlipped on dealings before they happen this window (which they weren't last summer) so possible they could be in and just not tipping their hat yet as negotiations ongoing or what not... but if they told him they are making no offer, then Besler's agent is just spouting nonsense...
Sucks that it seems right now our best prospect of seeing Besler in the EPL is the LAST place I would want to see him transfer. I'm so not looking forward to hearing Mackems trash another one of our yanks to hell and back.
He doesn't need a European passport because he's been a regular starter with the USMNT for over a year. No way they'd ever reject to give him a work permit. His age really shouldn't be a factor in the interest from teams. His present ability is very good, and he could start in any league in the world for most teams. There is nothing wrong with signing a 1 contract CB who will will step in right away and give you four or five good years as one of the best CB's in the league. If he really impresses, maybe he could stick around past his first contract and play into his mid to late 30's.
Why is that crazy? I rate him higher than you do obviously. I think he's the best American player right now. He's been the best and most consistent USMNT defender for over a year now and he captained his team in MLS to the championship as one of the best players in the league.
Which is why he is asking for Gonzo money - ~ $1.3M/Y or so - to stay with SKC. Fulham can easily pay it. For SKC, it doesn't make much sense though ... but you never know. Fewer bidders can surely knock down the price. The exuberance of youth.
The problem with Whoscored is that they base their rankings off of a formula. Usually that formula will give a good indication of how a player played, but that formula doesn't watch the game like a human does. It's prone to be wrong eventually. That's why I don't think its a bad source for how a player played if you missed a game or two, but you certainly shouldn't be using it as the end all be all when comparing players. Why does there need to be a comparison? I don't think there is any CB recently that compares to Besler's situation and his strengths and weaknesses.
He'd be moving to the Championship, which a league that is about on par with MLS. If he's the best defender in a league on par with the Championship, then why wouldn't he move to a better league? Wouldn't that just make logical sense for a player to move to a higher level when he's mastered a lower level?
So, there are no comparable defenders with a $5M-$7M price tag? Sure, if he wants to move but that may not be the case ... comfort of home and all that.
Noted, but I don't think a club will be complaining if Besler gives them five years as a very good starting CB.
We seem to be talking about different things. I'm just talking about his ability. There are a lot of factors that go into a player's price tag. I'm just pointing out that I think he's too good for a club like Sunderland or Fulham. I'll let others decide his price tag. I want to speculate about which side would be a good fit. I agree. If he doesn't get an offer from a stable club, then I think he will sign an extension with SKC. We've only heard two of the speculated ten teams, so the options could be a lot better than Sunderland and Fulham.
Top leagues have 18 or 20 teams. Therefore, starting for 95% of them would mean there's only 1 team in each top league for whom Besler wouldn't start. So he'd start for either Barca or Real Madrid. He'd start for all but one of Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal, Man U, and Liverpool, not to mention every other Prem team. He wouldn't start for Bayern Munich but he would start for every other team in Germany. He wouldn't start for PSG but he would start for every other team in France. That's why that's crazy.
We've never really had a center back clearly demonstrate that they were better than a perennially relegation threatened club in a top 4 league -- since '94, aside from Besler, we've only had two World Cup starting CB's who never tried their luck in Europe (Pope and Balboa), and none of the rest proved capable of contributing meaningfully as a CB for a club better than the ones that seem interested in Besler now. (Although depending on whether you think this country had any hand in their development as players, Ryan Nelsen and Neven Subotic are at least two small data points in our favor.) Which is not to say that Besler couldn't do it. But don't be surprised if better clubs look at that track record and find themselves reluctant to take a shot on him without first seeing what he can do for another team in their league.
America is not like a contagious disease or something. They will look at Besler as a pro soccer player playing in a lesser league. That is what scouts are payed for.
Your entire argument is loaded with fallacies. Simply because the US has never produced a player of a certain caliber does not necessarily then mean that clubs will not recognize higher quality players once they do emerge. I don't recall a long and illustrious line of goalkeepers coming out of Costa Rica and yet Keylor Navas just sealed a deal with Real Madrid. Deandre Yedlin has been heavily linked with AS Roma, hardly a middling team in Serie A at the moment, and may well be the real deal as a wingback. The assertion that clubs have any interest at all in the performance of former USMNT players with regards to the player they are currently scouting is both specious and essentially nonsense.
I never said they wouldn't recognize higher quality players. But there's a difference between recognizing talent and pulling the trigger on a purchase. All transfers are risky propositions -- there's no such thing as a surefire success even among players that appear to scouts to have a high level of quality and/or have demonstrated they can play at a high level in the very same league. So clubs are going to be reluctant to loosen their purse strings every time a player catches their eye. If a club is looking at ten players, obviously one of the key factors in making their decision will be a simple eyeball test of their talent. But if they recognize quality in all ten players and don't see a ton of difference separating them, then other considerations are going to factor in. How players with a similar background, development path, and history of success at their current level have done at the level for which they're being sought will be some of those considerations. I never said they would necessarily be overriding considerations in all circumstances. I just said I wouldn't be surprised if they were in this case. It appears you didn't read my post very carefully. I said that a better club might not want to pull the trigger on Besler without first seeing how he does with a lesser club in the same league. Another way to put that is that Real Madrid might not want to purchase Besler without first seeing how he would do at a club like Levante. I thought this went without saying in my post, but I'll clarify now: if Besler were 20 years old coming into this World Cup and had the same performance he did, then I think a club like Roma would be much more likely to be interested in him, because he would have plenty more time for development and wouldn't be expected to contribute heavily right away. Raw talent (and athleticism in Yedlin's case) at a young age is another strong consideration in a player's favor that might outweigh a number of the other considerations I mentioned earlier. I'll just finish by saying there's really no need for all of this, and it's the kind of thing that makes me avoid a lot of the other forums on this site. It's unnecessarily confrontational and doesn't add anything to the points you've made.
At his age in an athletes career, I would expect 'Apart from financially...' is no way to start a conversation.