Fulham’s Clint Dempsey has emerged as David Moyes’ top transfer target – with the manager ready to swoop once Jack Rodwell’s proposed move to Manchester City is completed.

The funds from the sale of the 21-year-old England international will provide Moyes with the opportunity to strengthen his squad, and the Fulham midfield man has long been admired by the Everton manager. Dempsey’s agent has already held talks with the Goodison Park club.

The Everton boss is also hot on the trail of Manchester City winger Adam Johnson, but it is believed that wages may prove to be a stumbling block that would mean Moyes switches his attention to Blackpool’s Matty Phillips and Tom Ince.

10 Responses »

1. steve on August 12th, 2012 at 5:28 pm:

   Would be brilliant news if true but what is the source ?? please reasure me this is kosha

2. Bentley on August 12th, 2012 at 10:21 pm:

   I love Dempsey, but he’s too old and expensive for us. He’s a Cahill that’s only 3 years younger, and will probably cost half the Rodwell money. Please don’t Distin the Rodwell money away on (relatively) expensive players with only one more contract ‘s life left in them. Windfalls like this are few and far between, and god knows we’ve spunked significant proportions of past ones either paying well over the odds (Distin), buying the wrong players (van der Meyde, Kroldrup) or both (Bily). Please please do an old Moyes, and find the next Dempsey/Arteta/Cahill/Pienaar who are 23-26, largely off others’ radars, and only a couple of £million each – build a team /squad for the future . Otherwise we’ll be selling Barkley to City in 3 years for similar money, having sold Dempsey to NY Red Bulls for a nominal fee.

3. Pablobrown on August 12th, 2012 at 11:47 pm:

   Distin has been cracking buy Bentley and worth every penny

4. james on August 13th, 2012 at 2:24 am:

   Dempsey is a class player , a proven asset to fulham, always willing to get stuck in, heads always in the game, takes chances, brilliant support for any attacking player, not plagued with injuries like some players of same quality , positions, any everton supporter who cannot see the benifit from having this sort of player with all the experience guts and go as cahill had 3 or so years ago, i question your sence, if we can pull this off il have a smile on my face till the end of my days, c’mon moyesy do the buisness get this done pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, p.s good bye jack, what a waste of talent at city

5. Gareth Fieldstead on August 13th, 2012 at 9:13 am:

   Where has your information come from Ryan? This article reads like a tabloid sports writer, hoping if he shoots enough arrows one of them will hit a target. Presuming Moyes gets some of the money to spend, and lets face it, we are talking Kenwright here! it will certainly not be all of it. If they have banked 12 million then the banks will want at least 4 million of that, Fulham have already put a 10 million price tag on Dempsey and the player himself has stated that he would like to end his career challenging for trophies. As for the Blackpool players, I agree they would be decent signings, young, bags of potential and in the case of Phillips has already been capped by his country. However, Holloway wont let them leave on the cheap and we are not the only club that has shown an interest.

6. Poul on August 13th, 2012 at 9:24 am:

   Buying “old” players fit enough to play for there entire contract periode (lige Distin) is as good business as buying younger players – evert heard off Bosman ? Your not a fan of Distin Bentley ??

7. Mark on August 13th, 2012 at 10:23 am:

   Bentley – i agree completley with what you are saying except for one point – Distin. the man effortlessly filled the gap left by lescott to the point where he wasnt missed at all, he has played more minutes on the pitch than any outfield player for us since we signed him and has only 2 yobo esq mistakes to his name. Distin in my eyes was money well spent and he still seems to have 3 or 4 years left in him injuries aside.

8. Posho on August 13th, 2012 at 10:50 am:

   How much longer will Everton be in this dire predicament of getting excited about spending the money off the back of a sold player? They should have spending money every season whilst “building” their squad up.
   They are now looking thin and are looking to buy the odd 30 years old etc.

   Everton fans unfortunately have settled for second best and wont be winning anything for a loooong time no matter how excited they get in the short term.

   The proof will be at the end of next season.

9. steve true blue on August 13th, 2012 at 11:56 am:

   Ok rodwell gone.now all we need is class striker partner jelovic pacey winger and rb let moyes do hi magic defoe would be good not owen .in moyes we trust top six finish .

10. Bentley on August 13th, 2012 at 3:50 pm:

    I love Distin. I drew a distinction between wrong players and ones we paid too much for. If I was at turbulent Portsmouth in 2009, entering administration, and Everton came in for my uncapped 31 year old defender, in the final year of his contract, who had publicly said he wouldn’t be re-signing the deal we’d offered him, I’d bite their hands off for any transfer fee. Telling the administrators you’d just turned down a firm couple of £mil offer for one of the players you could no longer afford to keep would be an interesting conversation to have. As it was, the distressed vendors somehow managed to get £5m out of us ie. the same as Lescott, Heitinga, and even more than Jagielka. I’m not comparing his skill unfavourably to them, just his marketability in the summer of 2009.

    Kranjcar (a younger, full international, goal-scoring midfielder ie. more valuable on paper / round the negotiating table) was in exactly the same contract situation as Distin, and Levy snaffled him for £2.5m in the same window. In my opinion Distin was and is the right player for us, we’re just not a club that can afford to be that rubbish at negotiating.