The Texan Gets His Spurs: Dempsey at Tottenham [R]

He 's not coming back to play on a crap turf field.

 

Absolutely. Part of the genius of Moyes was that he accepted what he had to work with, and found ways to make the pieces work. Baines is excellent as well, and truly unlucky to be around when Ashley Cole is still playing well. Who would have though of Fellaini as target in the hole? How many managers have the guts to pull that off? He was so good at adapting to what he had to work with.

It's not like they were Stoke either. I thought it was a good mix of direct play and sharp passing. On their day, Everton were as good to watch as anyone. They just have no depth to speak of.

 

I am trying to place myself inside the meeting between AvB and Clint:

AvB: Joo must doo whats best for Cleent Dempsey. Hee iz whut matters here.
Clint: (Stares at him)
AvB: Martinez at EEverton he wants whats best for Cleent Dempsey as well.
Clint: (stares at him)
AvB: I heer San Francisco makes lovely crepes! (Files nails nervously)
Clint: (stands up and walks out)

 

Ok, Ok, I'm not besmirching MLS, and I don't want to fight every MLS fan on these boards. I would just love to see MLS go out and get a star who isn't on the wrong side of his prime. I'm only speaking for me and not saying MLS is terrible, I would just personally be more likely to get more invested if I could see a guy like Kaka now as opposed to when he is 35 and soft. I know, I know, I'm exhibit A of why soccer will never catch on in the States, I'm the devil, blah blah blah. I'm optimistic though that ultimately MLS will be a serious player in world leagues as opposed to a feeder, but I just don't want them to start the transition with Clint.

 

So true! Until the owners get together and decide they will take less money and invest in their teams so that they can make more money in the future they will always be a third rate league. I consider the Mexican league second rate. They basically need to raise the salary cap to $10 million and then in 5-10 years $20 million and who knows maybe in 50 years it will be as high as the NFL is right now which i believe is over $110 million. You need to be the best in the Americas before you target best in the world. Getting one player or two does not equal anything. Look at the Mexican league, I don't even know their team by team budget but if I would guess it is $15-$20 millions which might be alot higher for Club America, but check how much better those players and teams are when compared to the MLS. We are way behind them and these Concacaf Tournaments do not represent how big the margin is, it is huge. For example one player in a Mexican team could be making what the whole MLS team is making so you know MLS owners are pocketting a lot of mula with the current salary cap.

 

Still, the only reason any of those would even consider it is because they're getting old. Kaka especially went from World Player of the Year to glued to the bench.

 

Last night was an awful night to have a Twitter account. Personally, I dont think Dempsey is going anywhere.

 

You know what is interesting? Clint, his agents, or Spurs have not issued any kind of statement, and I'm sure they are aware of what's going on.

 

I didn't actually think about whether the owners being greedy is part of the problem. I can't imagine that MLS teams are a cash cow for these guys, although the sale of the Crew to an investment banking firm makes it seem a bit more reasonable to think there is some real profit to be made in MLS ownership.

 

I'll give you 500 internets if you call Tottenham's press office and ask if Dempsey has been in training, and if not, why he didn't come back with the club from Asia.

 

Not to rehash this age old chicken-egg, but "investing" in players isn't going to make soccerfan/notmlsfan watch. Paying for percieved stars would quickly lead to no league in the states again. Truth be told, we're in the wrong hemisphere to become a "first rate league". We can get as good as we want. We'll still be playing in the CCL against W Connection, Alujuelese, and Laguna. We'll never, ever have the european cup competition that is really driving the car in Europe. The money is in TV, and until we get big TV money, MLS is going to struggle to pay. Paying first isn't going to make people tune in. They'll just replace the BS "quality of play" with another reason to not watch.

And I don't think many owners are making big money. Maybe Seattle and LA.

 

How much is an internets worth nowadays?

 

If I was an owner I would love this salary cap, great business model. My job is to make money and me having a salary cap is great because it gives me an excuse to not spend more. Why would i want to spend $10 million on my team and take less profit. I need to keep the wage as low as possible as long as my stadiums are full and they keep on buying $11 beer and $6 nachos, I'm making a killing. DPs are great too because maybe one season I invest a "little" more so therefore i put more people in the stadium, but don't obligate me to spend it every year which that is what you would do when you increase the salary cap since now fans will expect me to spend that money or I would look really bad if I spend only 70%. I think I'm in wrong business!!

 

To be honest I don't really care for stars, but with a higher salary cap I could get more good players at an earlier stage which will make my team and league a lot better. I could get many good players at $750K which i can make better and sell for $3mill-$4mill.

 

Very good point. Maybe instead of aiming to join CONMEBAL we should push to join UEFA. Though then we'd never get out of our group!

 

According to Mix, 42.

 

To be honest I dont really care about MLS! This is yanks abroad.

 

42

 

And I'd personally rather see them spend that same money on academies and youth networks. There are plenty of people and players here. We need MLS to step up on the development side. To their credit, they have. I want to see it continue. If we'd required the academies back in 96, who knows where American soccer would be.

 

There is something to be said about a league that has the players just before they make the jump to the big time, like Holland and some could say France (before the oil money takes over completely). Just below the sharks at the top of the food chain.

 

That makes two! Clint shouldn't come back!

 

Any actual sightings of Clint at SFO?

 

If MLS champion got a UCL spot, that would change everythign overnight. Oh to dream.

 

The MLS rumors sprung from the fact that Dempsey is flying back to the US to meet with Everton. That is all. There's nothing to it. I for one would be glad to see him leaving Spurs, who never seemed like a good fit, with their collection of ball hogging, shoot-first attackers. Clint was always going to have a difficult time fitting in there, though Bale leaving would solve at least some of those issues.

 

How do you know he is meeting with Everton?
To me this is just as much speculation as him going to the Sounders.

Hell, maybe his dentist is on the west coast and he had an emergency toothache.