Not much
The Club is making sensible moves at the moment. Realising that good support at Middlesbrough *could* give the players an extra 1% of mojo, the club is assessing options for getting us all up there. The present solution seems to be a £99 flight from Gatwick airport. Hmmm. That’s a lot of money. Hopefully there’ll be a free coach, or there’s always the pub.
In other news, people seem to keep bumping into Clint Dempsey in Wimbledon Village. They’ve chatted to him and reported the sort of things back that you’d expect them to. As I’ve said a number of times, I can’t for the life of me understand why some people have been so quick to write him off. If it takes Andrey Shevchenko months to settle into a good team while playing every week, why should Clint Dempsey be expected to slip right in when given 10 minutes every three weeks? We all like to think we’re experts, that we can spot a player, I only wish people were a little more balanced when they form these views. We all know how form comes and goes (Brown, Volz, Pearce, Knight have all had massive swings in form in this season), how can we judge a player we’ve hardly seen? Without playing Dempsey won’t get the pace of the game, won’t get his confidence and his match sharpness. I think he’ll come good.
The trouble with doing this site that sometimes you run out of things to say. You scratch your head and end up writing about dead mice. Never mind though, it’s all about results now isn’t it? We just need a win from somewhere. It’s still not obvious where this’ll come from, and I don’t buy the theory that Liverpool will be soft owing to other commitments, but we must hope that something turns up.
Update: I’d missed this. Hmm. Ranieri, eh? Well, why not?
Whilst I agree that we`ve seen too little of Dempsy to make a judgement, i also think that the fact that he`s been given so little time tells its own story. Correct me if I`m wrong but didn`t overseas players like Goma, Van der Sar, Malbranque, Diop and Christanval go more or less straight into the team? You can say: “Well, of course they did. They are really good players.” But Dempsey`d an international too, remember.
Not sure the comparison with Shevchenko is apt, in that Chelsea have done as well without him as with him. The difference is that, with our paper-thin squad and dodgy league position, we can`t afford for players that cost £1.5m to “fail” right from the start. Chelsea can afford it because they have a large and talented squad.
I appreciate that the point you were making, WMC, was that players need time. Some do, certainly. Actually, I don`t think Shevchenko is ever going completely to adapt to English football.
Wing Half
25 Apr 07 at 2:50 pm
It may instead say something about the prejudice against American players that I have heard time and time again from … you guessed it, American players. Especially the ones who paved the way, like John Harkes. While I agree, we still have a long way to go, we are producing some players that can compete with the best even though they may not be one of those best players. But they still have much to offer.
With that said, I too wonder if there is some things he still needs to learn that they are working on with him. I have referenced Bobby Convey here before but he took a whole season of pulling splinters out of his ass before he was able to get in a full preseason and went on to have a wonderful season with Reading, being an important part of their pulling back into the Premiership. The kid is a talent. Can he make it in the EPL. That is one we will have to wait for a while to answer.
bq
25 Apr 07 at 5:13 pm
The American players are getting better and better, and it’s only going to keep going that way. I think Fulham have been quite canny in trying(?) to position themselves as “America’s Team”, if such a thing is happening. It’ll lead to merchandising opportunities and ought to help recruit the next generation of young American players. IF we stay up, of course.
I think I’ve done Dempsey to death now, but I remain convinced that he’ll be good if he gets a chance to be. And I think if we were still hovering around 10th Cookie would be using him a lot more, but we’re not and he’s not (he can’t now, obviously).
Alrighty, time to find something to eat.
weltmeisterclaude
25 Apr 07 at 8:00 pm