Depending on who you choose to believe, Clint Dempsey might already be a Liverpool player, as the NESN have announced that Dempsey will be part of club’s three-match North American tour, while Fulham have denied that the deal for the American player has been completed.
Whether a done deal or waiting to happen, Brendan Rodgers is inches away from signing his second player to bolster his attacking ranks after the club completed the signing of Fabio Borini from Roma. Dempsey wasn’t the first attacking midfielder Rodgers had in mind, but after Gylfi Sigurdsson and Hoffenheim preferred to deal with Tottenham, Rodgers turned to Dempsey, who scored 17 goals last season for the Cottagers.
Again, Fulham have denied that Dempsey has indeed been sold, but the price is rumored to be £10 million for the 29 year old, 87 time international for the United States.
Liverpool had a lot of problems with scoring last season, which had to do some with bad luck (leading the league in hitting the crossbar) but but in too many matches just found it hard to create chances, scoring only 47 goals in 38 matches, the lowest production among the top 8 teams and in the lower half of the league in team scoring.
Fulham have already made a few changes, especially upfront, this summer, bringing in Mladen Petric from Hamburg and Hugo Rodallega from Wigan, while releasing/losing Andy Johnson to QPR, Danny Murphy to Blackburn and Pavel Pogrebnyak to Reading. The team finished 9th in the Premier League last season, level with Liverpool, both with 52 points.
Liverpool, who will be playing in the Europa League in 2012-2013 thanks to their penalties win over Cardiff in the Carling Cup have completed one signing so far, Fabio Borini from Roma, while letting Fabio Auerlio (to Gremio), Dirk Kuyt (to Fenerbahce) and Maxi Rodriguez (Newell’s) go. Rodgers is planning on making more changes, looking to offload Craig Bellamy and even Andy Carroll, hoping to find someone willing to pay £20 million for the striker.