A football gypsy who has done wonders at Fulham, next Liverpool Manager?Last season the Confederations Cup served as an appetizer for the season ahead, nobody expected the US to be in the final against Brazil let alone leading 2-0. It was supposed to be Clint Dempsey's night, but as usual the Brazilians came back like a slick pickpocket or hustler at a pool table...Minnesota Fats (refer to Walter Tevis' novel The Hustler) at his best. Who would have thought that Dempsey's season was just begining. After that USA lost to Mexico in the CONCACAF Cup or better known as Gold Cup, that was hard to swallow after the Americans gave the Brazilians a good fight for their money in the Confed Cup. The 5-0 defeat against the Mexicans added insult to injury, but for Demspey more goodies lay ahead. Dempsey first began kicking a ball around with the Mexican immigrant population in the Texas border town of Nacogdoches, where he grew up in a trailer. One of the more colourful characters in the USA line-up, he is also one of its most successful, carving out a thriving career in the English Premier League with London side Fulham (His side gig as a hip-hop artist). Before Fulham he was at New England Revolution and he was sold at now what seems to be a bargain for 4 million USD.
In his second season at Fulham he was top scorer and has won at various stages in his career the US soccer athlete player of the year and US national team player of the year awards. Dempsey is what you call a behind the hole striker who can also fit into the playmaker role in midfield. This season Fulham's run in the Europa League has been extraordinary, defeating teams like Wolfsburg, Hamburg, Roma and Juventus on their way to the final. These teams are Champions league calibre teams and perhaps the best match was against Juventus. Fulham were losing on aggregate 3-1 from the first leg in Turin, in the second leg at Fulham they let in a goal from David Trezguet of Juve and that meant 4-1 down. It proved a real uphill battle for Fulham but they got back in the game and a Dempsey winner in the 83rd minute saw Fulham win 5-4 on aggregate.
Each time Fulham was deemed to be out they pulled a rabbit out of the hat. Their opponents are Atletico Madrid of Spain (in the final)and it is nice to see two teams that you would have never thought of reaching the final actually do it. No matter who wins football is the winner, but I can't help but think of Dempsey and Fulham manager Roy Hodgson, what Hodgson has done here with Fulham is a lesson to all the teams with their money bags. It is also a lesson to owners and chairmen of teams who always go after the manager who has more "appeal", Real Madrid was not happy with the so called "dour" Vincente Del Bosque, they chopped and changed managers like crop circles and incidentlly it proved to be the famine years for Real as they struggled to win a trophy in 4 years.
Sir Alex Ferguson said that this has to be one of the best British performances of all time and make no mistake it trully is. Hodgson should take more credit than he deserves. Hodgson is a soccer gypsy he had a modest playing carreer and though he was on Crystal Palace's books he never played for the first team.
This was followed by several years in non-league football with Tonbridge, Gravesend, Nortfleet and Maidstone United (where he was assistant manager). From there he went on to..ready for this: Halmstads (Sweden), Malmo (Sweden), FC Copenhagen, Bristol City, Orebro (Sweden), Neuchâtel Xamax (Switzerland), The Swiss national team, Inter Milan (two stints), Blackburn Rovers, Grasshopper Zurich (Switzerland), Udinese (Italy), United Arab Emirates (National team), Viking Stavanger (Norway) and the Finland National team.
Despite player power problems at Inter in his first stint in 1995-97, Hodgson built a good team and laid the foundations for them to win the UEFA Cup (now Europa league) in 1998. Hodgson is multilingual and speaks fluent Norwegian, Swedish and Italian, Hodgson has peddled the soccer philosophies of England and Britain well and this Europa League tropy will be a crowning moment for this man. If Fulham wins this tournament I would like to see this man kinghted and Clint Dempsey win the US Athlete of the year award (I mean not just in soccer!!).This new competition (Europa League) where 192 teams took part with a Champions League format is not a inferior tournament make no mistake in that, just ask Juventus and Wolfsburg, Fulham all the way!
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