Should I stay or should I go?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not only is that an awesome Clash song, it\u2019s also a major question facing American soccer star Clint Dempsey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a question he appears to have answered but should rethink.<\/p>\n
At 29 years old \u2014 entering the last year of his contract \u2014 Dempsey feels this is his last chance to play for a world-class club. He made it clear early in the summer he wanted to leave his English Premier League side, Fulham, for an opportunity to play Champion\u2019s League football \u2014 something Fulham just can\u2019t offer him.<\/p>\n
In the 20-team league, only four sides qualify for Champion\u2019s League play. Fulham finished ninth last year, 17 points away from the coveted fourth place. Over the past five years, the club managed to finish as high as seventh, but also managed to finish as low as 17th.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Fulham, who has built a respectable team capable of defeating anyone on a good day, money drives the EPL even more than it drives baseball in America.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMoneyball\u201d and the Oakland Athletics made for a great story. Know how it ended?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s made the playoffs five out of seven years, but never advanced to a World Series. Then they receded back into mediocrity after the rest of the league caught up with general manager Billy Beane\u2019s tactics.<\/p>\n
In the same way you know the New York Yankees are always going to make the playoffs, it would be inconceivable to bet on anyone other than Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City or Arsenal to win this year.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible another team could sneak into fourth place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But as a player, if Champion\u2019s League is your goal, playing for one of the aforementioned sides is crucial.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s precisely why Dempsey\u2019s desire to leave Fulham doesn\u2019t make sense. The teams seriously going after him don\u2019t measure up. Dempsey should not transfer this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s get one thing clear: I don\u2019t think it\u2019s because he\u2019s not good enough.<\/p>\n
Dempsey has long been one of my favorite players. He\u2019s got a swagger about him that is sorely lacking among other U.S. players.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a 2009 Confederations Cup match against Brazil, the U.S. looked lost. Brazil dominated our national team in every facet of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Late in the second half, Brazil went up 3-0 and began to joga bonito \u2014 which means to play beautifully in Portuguese.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In English, it means to show off.<\/p>\n
Brazil\u2019s players juggled the ball, attempted multiple step-over maneuvers, flip-flaps, elasticos and many other flashy tricks with weird names.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Deflated, embarrassed and defeated, most U.S. players stopped trying at this point. But not Dempsey.<\/p>\n
Dempsey demanded the ball, and, when he got it, refused to pass. He did some moves of his own, putting the ball through one Brazilian\u2019s legs, attempted a Rabona and drew a free kick by dribbling right at and around a defender.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On a night when most Americans were thoroughly outclassed and humiliated, Dempsey\u2019s game made a statement: I can play with anyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a statement he backed up with last season\u2019s Premier League campaign. The Football Writers\u2019 Association voted Dempsey the league\u2019s fourth best player after he tallied 23 goals across all competitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His 17 league goals put him in fourth place on the goal-scoring charts behind names like Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie.<\/p>\n
What makes Dempsey\u2019s achievement even more impressive is the fact that he scored those goals on a mid-table team, played midfield \u2014 not striker \u2014 and doesn\u2019t take penalty kicks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Rooney and Van Persie led Manchester United and Arsenal\u2019s front lines while also serving as their team\u2019s respective main penalty kick taker. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Dempsey has earned every bit of the arrogance he plays with, but in this case the swagger is misplaced.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because the only team chasing Dempsey\u2019s services is Liverpool, a club with a\u00a0<\/p>\n
mammoth amount of history and prestige \u2014 but also a team going through a rebuilding process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another team, Sunderland, has recently joined the sweepstakes, but that move would represent a lateral step at best.<\/p>\n
Dempsey\u2019s heart seems to lie with Liverpool. But the Reds haven\u2019t reached the Champion\u2019s League since 2008-09 and finished only one spot above Fulham last year. Since then, the club has hired a new manager and started the season with one loss and one draw.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No matter what happens with Dempsey, Liverpool will finish higher in the table than Fulham. But there\u2019s no way in hell it will qualify for the Champion\u2019s League.<\/p>\n
Liverpool might be a aecognizable name, but Dempsey can do better. In fact, he can do better by staying right where he is.<\/p>\n
Yes, after this season he\u2019ll be a year older, but he\u2019ll also be out of his contract. That means any top team could secure his talents without paying the $12.5 million Fulham is demanding for him. With the price tag ripped off, Dempsey could easily find himself suiting up for Arsenal or Manchester United on the biggest stage.<\/p>\n
Unless something crazy happens before the transfer window closes Friday, Dempsey should reconcile his differences with Fulham \u2014 he hasn\u2019t played in the team\u2019s first two games \u2014 and go joga bonito.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Should I stay or should I go?\u00a0 Not only is that an awesome Clash song, it\u2019s also a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82,103044],"class_list":{"0":"post-212050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uc-soccer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}