Fulham to sign Clint Dempsey

[Butter]

For about a $3 million fee according to soccernet.

I guess he'd be coming over pretty much immediately. Fulham's my favorite English club, so this is a good move for me. They really showed some fire last weekend at Chelsea, so maybe they can parlay this into another move or two to help the defense and make a run into the top half.

Is this good for Dempsey and/or US soccer, though? Having one of the MLS's best players moving to a mid-level English team? I guess the road has been paved by Reyna, Beasley, and McBride to name a few. I will be interested to see how Dempsey does there.

[Young Drachma]

Hmm...i don't think it's good for MLS. For US soccer, sure. That and it's things like that this that will prevent MLS from ever gaining a foothold. Even the NHL is the best of its kind in the world. MLS isn't and I don't know how it will ever be able to gain the sort of support they're looking for, given that everyone will know the best players in MLS aspire to bail the league as soon as they can.

[Young Drachma]

That said, good for Dempsey. He was my favorite US player during the World Cup.

[kingfc22]

He was the only US player during the World Cup.

fixed that

[Young Drachma]

I was thinking that, but didn't want to say it.

[Easy Mac]

Its been around 11 years, its going to take MLS quite a while to be anything in the scope of worldwide soccer. I think we should take the French/Dutch leagues as an example. They're consistently among the top national sides in the world. Their leagues have plenty of talent, but they're still a step below England/Italy... They get young South Americans and sell them out. They're top players stay right until their prime. Their top teams generally hang around till the end of international tourneys (UEFA and Champions League).
I'm more than happy to watch MLS grab good young talent and sell high. I think what works for it is that the US is seen as better than Holland/France in terms of a potential market. What I mean is, if MLS ever gets to the level of the Dutch or French, we've got a good chance to jump them just for the attractiveness of the market over here. But to think that 10 years is enough time to build a league compared to established ones (with far more money) that are 10 times as old is a bit absurd.