Fair Play or Foul! Dempsey at Fulham V [R]

Seltzer never said anything more than team X was interested, made a call, was scared off by the price and went elsewhere. I don't know why anybody is associating him with goal.com rumors which most people know are completely made up.

 

I think Seltzer has more contacts, and frequently does have an idea what is being talked about behind the scenes. As I said before, most talk doesn't turn into anything concrete. I don't see the harm and letting us know some of the behind the scene talk though.

Ives just seems to report things after another source has come out with it. The Adu deal was an exception. I don't think he has half the contacts he'd like us to think he does. Hey, if we disagree, we disagree.

 

For those interested in the financial state of clubs in the PL.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/may/19/premier-league-finances-black-hole

 

First, please don't call that club "United"

Second, they're only profitable before debt, as they pay something like 90m a year to service their debt (although some of that will be lessened through the Singapore stock offering it seems.)

iirc Stoke have been profitable in the past as they have no debt (they might now after splashing the cash a bit.)

 

The Euro leagues past the big clubs are surprisingly small time in terms of revenue compared to what we see in American sports, the NHL for example would easily supplant Ligue 1 revenue-wise if it was a soccer league IIRC.

 

Doesn't mean the interest wasn't there, which is all that he reported, they had interest in acquiring an American.

Auxerre didn't sell the midfielder the rumor hinged on, which took the potential transfer off the table, he updated his report with that bit of news.

Again, doesn't mean there wasn't interest in him from those clubs, he speaks with Dempseys agent who would know better than you or I.

That was a very bizarre situation, hard to fault him for how it unfolded and he wasn't the only one who got it wrong. I get the impression Liverpool thought it was a fait accompli too.

I didn't see that but if he did at least he got the league and first letter of the club right

I appreciate he reports what he hears and has personally confirmed, I'd rather hear the gossip (which is what silly season is all about) while its still fresh than he wait to try to get every story exactly right.

 

Goal.com sucks! Dempsey at Fulham VI.

BTW, what the heck does the current title mean anyway?

 

I'm glad Deuce turned down that crappy gun team that couldn't even beat Metrostars.

 

He's updated that to say the buzz has died down leading him to believe nothing will come off overnight so he's gone to bed.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Greg Seltzer has left the building...

 

I'd assume it refers to the fact that Fulham got into the Europa league via the Fair Play ranking.

 

Well, Fulham made some positive moves, so perhaps they'll be better. Clint still is in a good place, so I'm not too sad.

Much more worried about Jones, Clark, Guzan, and others who aren't playing.

 

IMO, Fulham has built one of the best starting XI's outside of the top 6. Their defense is solid (at least it should be, and probably will be) and they have assembled a dangerous set of attackers. If they can stay healthy, the team may be able to successfully navigate through the EPL and Europa League seasons.

How good can the quartet of Dempsey, Dembele, Ruiz and Zamora be if they can just friggin' stay healthy???

 

agreed, assuming Ruiz can meet the promise his form at Twente suggested...

With their consistently tough home form, Fulham strikes me as a team that should be pushing their way to the top of the 2nd tier of the table (below ManU, ManC, Chelsea...and causing worries for Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal if they stumble for extended periods)

 

This.

 

Fulham has a decent shot at qualifying for the Europa League again next year with their current roster.

 

Good starting XI, but no depth. Fulham needs to stay healthy for a europa spot.

 

Hopefully they shelf AJ now that they brought in another attacking option in Ruiz. AJ causes Fulham to play MLS style. Long ball after long ball. Three managers has played the same way with him. I was always impressed with him at Crystal Palace. He was a tough nose striker that created opportunity for himself in the box. This long ball stuff just kills their attack, he is too small to win them. Without Johnson in the lineup, they always had a better flow to their game. Drop Johnson, put Dempsey as Foward, Ruiz to the wing and scores some goals have a shot at Europe.

 

What you've got to remember about Seltzer and Ives is that they've got the MLS connections, but they don't have an inside track on the Premier League. When places like Sky, etc who do have the Premier League connection won't touch rumour with a barge pole (and Dempsey to Arsenal would've been a rumour worth reporting as Dempsey is a relatively well-known player in England and all of Arsenal's transfer window wheelings and dealings were deemed very newsworthy) you know there's probably nothing to them.

The Villa, Sevilla and possibly Roma rumours were probably based on some concrete interest, but I get the impression that the Arsenal rumour was born out of nothing more than baseless speculation.

I think Fulham have done fairly decently out of this window, I thought they were going to struggle this year (thoguh the weakness of Swansea and Norwich would've offered a good cushion against any of the more established Prem teams facing the drop), but their re-inforcements, partifcualrly Ruiz will probably put them on course for another respectable mid-table finish.

 

And that's why neither Seltzer nor Ives (who I've been critical of plenty of times) gave any credibility to the Demps to Arsenal rumors... Oh and fyi, Seltzer is based in Europe, and his been for quite a while.

 

I think Seltzer lives in Amsterdam...I'd guess he has a good number of European connections.

 

This plain just never happened. Not sure how you even came up with this notion.

 

I don't think that Seltzer was the one pushing the Dempsey to Arsenal rumor. Goal.com was pushing that one. The only mention that I can recall Seltzer giving it was once mentioning that Goal reported it and then later I'm pretty sure he said that he could find no evidence to support it.

 

That's the guaranteed amount. There's also extra payments for when your team is actually ON television (which favors the big clubs) and the TV money is used to fund the table bonuses...so a midtable team gets millions more in bonus money, and millions more for actual appearances.

 

Yes? Weren't there reports that Arsenal had submitted an 8 million (pound? euro?) final bid, but Fulham wanted 10?