Dembele To Stay

[Tonywa]

Call me old Mr. Cynical, but while I am pleased to read all these quotes from the wonderfully-talented Mr. Dembele about not wanting to leave the Cottage, let's see if his stated loyalty runs to signing a new contract or an extension to his current one.  Of course, neither the player nor his agent will be unaware that if he stays for another season he might well further enhance his value, then walk away from the club on a Bosman and negotiate a highly-lucrative move for himself without having a large transfer fee hanging over his head.  Too cynical?  Maybe.  I sincerely hope so.  Anyway time will tell.  Fingers crossed.

[Berserker]

Yes very true. Not sure what the club will do if he won't sign a new contract. Maybe Mr Fulham could advise what usually happens

[JBH]

I think that if Moussa won't sign a contract extension then the club will sell him during this window regardless

[TonyGilroy]

He can only be sold with his consent.

Ultimately it comes down to what offers are received and how appealing they are to the player  AND the club. Same with Dempsey.

[cottage cheese]

i honestly think if he does not sign the contract by mid august then we have no choice but to sell him. We CANNOT afford to let him go on a free as we need the money to replace him. Its all great he wats to stay etc but until he actually commits i wont believe a word as this is football and loyalty means nothing these days

[TonyGilroy]

i honestly think if he does not sign the contract by mid august then we have no choice but to sell him. We CANNOT afford to let him go on a free as we need the money to replace him. Its all great he wats to stay etc but until he actually commits i wont believe a word as this is football and loyalty means f**k all these days

We'll no doubt WANT to but if he won't go we can't make him.

Players aren't sold. The club agrees, for a fee, to transfer their registration to a club that the player is willing to sign for.

[ffc73]

I am cynical on this PR coming from Dembele.  Of course we would like him to stay but I suspect he will not sign an extension and therefore the club needs to maximise the return.  Something now, less in January and nothing next summer.

As my memory fades by the day I cannot remember the exact details but did we not send Steed to train with the youth team the summer we were in a similar position with him?

Would we do the same with Dembele?

[TonyGilroy]

Didn't benefit us or Steed though.

We'd be better off getting one really good year out of Dembele than pissing him off and demotivating him.

The middle course is a new contract with a reasonable release clause. I'd hope that a compromise on that would make sense all round.

[Bassey the warrior]

Call me old Mr. Cynical, but while I am pleased to read all these quotes from the wonderfully-talented Mr. Dembele about not wanting to leave the Cottage, let's see if his stated loyalty runs to signing a new contract or an extension to his current one.  Of course, neither the player nor his agent will be unaware that if he stays for another season he might well further enhance his value, then walk away from the club on a Bosman and negotiate a highly-lucrative move for himself without having a large transfer fee hanging over his head.  Too cynical?  Maybe.  I sincerely hope so.  Anyway time will tell.  Fingers crossed.

No you're quite right. If Redknapp makes the familiar "I don't talk about other team's players but I'd definitely take him" comment we'll see how keen he is to stay.

[ffc73]

I agree that the middle road compromise would be best and, I think, that is what we managed to agree with EvdS before he went to Man Utd

[General]

you've got to bear in mind also who's around to influence him. We have a lot of top players at the club who have consistently shown loyalty to the club and rejected the overtures of bigger clubs - the likes of Schwarzer, Hangeland and Dempsey so far have all as far as we know not moved onto pastures new and stated a desire to stay at fulham unless the move is 100% favourable to them moving up the career ladder in regards to everything.

Then you have a manager who's exceptionally well respected throughout the world arguably and if not the world then definitely the continent, a manager who has won things.

Link that in to the fact that we're buying good players who're entering their peak - like Ruiz and Dembele and signing on players who've won titles and are starting to show their abilities in Diarra and Pogrebnyak (although the last hasn't signed on again with us) then why would you genuinely want to move.

Dembele is young and Fulham are on an upwards slant going up it.

That's not even to mention the clubs in London, got great training facilities, has started competiting for european football and has a great youth system that looks to be providing good competition for the squad.

Is there a whole lot more a happy footballer (who's playing attractive football and is valued by the club and manager) really needs?

We've got a great foundation at this club and can succeed if players want to and we're building on that... you've got to be 100% sure you're going to get a better deal at another club and unless someone is really aggressive in the top 4 it's not going to exactly be reassuring.

As Dempsey said - he's playing week in week out, if he goes to a champions league team it's not going to be one on the verge of the champions league and to play 2 or 3 games a year in the champions league, especially if it means uprooting your family and not enjoying the new club as much because you're not necessarily going to be a starter.

We're a european finalist club now - you can achieve things at this club and next season is the most likely it has been for a while (at least knowingly)...

[cottage cheese]

mark did not reject the advances of arsenal, he wanted to go and in fact he spoke on sky sports saying he was disspointed not to be able to talk to the gunners. The club turned the offer down.

also brede and murphy havnt turned down the overtures of bigger clubs as no offers have been made for them. IM just saying we have been lucky that no one has come in for our players more than the players wanting to stay..

when the bigger clubs have come in steed, edwin,saha,davis,smalling in recent years have gone.

Its comes with the territory of being a fulham fan, we can talk about loyalty all we want but martin allen came out with the best quote this year on his return to barnet when he said " i understand barnet/fulham is your life and in your heart to the fans, but for me it is a job at the end of the day and regardless of feeling to the club, anyone would take a better pay and job if it was offered to them"...thats football.