The likes of West Brom, Liverpool, Everton and Sunderland had surfaced in various reports as being potential English destinations for Dempsey in the wake of him being deemed surplus to requirements at Tottenham. Yet, despite these speculations, it was another team entirely whose name was being tossed around in connection with Dempsey: the Seattle Sounders.
As we know now, the rumors of a move to Seattle would become much more than that indeed, culminating in the confirmation of Dempsey's return to American shores by the end of last week. Predictably, the announcement was greeted with varying degrees of excitement, celebration, criticism, anguish and, as tends to happen with many MLS roster moves, pointed questions about just how Seattle came to land the current face of American soccer.
On the good end of this move is the fact that Dempsey is in a place where he is all but assured of playing ninety minutes, game in and game out; accordingly he should be as match fit and as sharp as possible going into next summer. Naturally there are those who don't see it that way thanks to the perception that the level of play in MLS doesn't exactly measure up to what Dempsey would otherwise encounter if he were playing in any of the big European leagues.
While such a point should certainly be considered when entering into this argument, I would also hazard to say that playing consistently in MLS with a contending side would be of much more use to Dempsey than playing in cameo roles with Tottenham. No, MLS is not at the Premier League's level these days, but sitting on the Tottenham bench save for substitute minutes and the odd start in the Europa League and domestic cups doesn't exactly equate to playing at the Premier League level either. Practicing alongside and against the likes of Aaron Lennon and Jan Vertonghen is hardly the same as actually playing against Rio Ferdinand and John Terry.
On the promising end of the spectrum, there can be little question that Dempsey's return to MLS while in his prime could represent a shift in the very ethos of league. Yes, money has been spent to bring in the likes of Beckham, Henry and Robbie Keane from Europe in recent years, but bringing an American player of Dempsey's pedigree back to the US on the strength of a $32 million/four year contract, all while he is still relatively young at 30 years old, suggests that MLS and its member clubs are potentially setting themselves up to be a destination league as opposed to being a final career stop for some notable players.
MLS as a whole is undoubtedly gaining a massive boost in marketability thanks to the Dempsey move, but the real boost, which may not be readily identifiable until a couple more years have passed, will indeed come on the field should more players in their prime follow Dempsey's lead thanks to continued investment on transfer market. Many have been critical of MLS for not being on par with the biggest leagues in the world, but likewise these detractors have been equally critical of Dempsey for coming back at this stage of his career. The pertinent question, then, is how are MLS and its clubs supposed to improve and one day rival Europe's brightest lights if not through moves such as this?
Yet all is not rosy around the league in the aftermath of the Dempsey transfer. For starters, Portland found themselves at the top of the allocation order for US National Team players returning to the league, but it was Seattle, sitting in the #2 spot, who landed him. If the speculation is true that Portland was not willing or in a position to meet his salary demands, then it is at least conceivable that Dempsey found his way to Seattle thanks to this notion.
Of greater concern is that, according to reports, it was actually MLS that covered the transfer fee in the neighborhood of $9 million, and not Seattle themselves (though they are paying his wages entirely). Such a revelation is rather concerning, because one then has to wonder if MLS, as a controlling body over the league's clubs, is in turn having too much control over player moves and team autonomy in the league's single-entity structure. MLS has now claimed that they would be willing to pay such transfer fees on behalf of clubs able to afford the wages of such sought after players, but one only has to look to the Olof Mellberg situation, whose move to Toronto was effectively struck down by the league last year, to find reason to wonder if this is actually the case.
In short, Clint Dempsey's move to Seattle certainly looks to have the makings of being a watershed moment for MLS and US soccer as a whole. An American star is returning to the league while still at his best and looks set to be the face of the league for years to come. The move shows that MLS and its clubs are ready to take another vital step onto the world's stage. For these reasons, one can view Dempsey's transfer with some positivity.
However, fans are also right to voice some very real concerns about the mechanisms in place that saw Dempsey return to the states in the first place. Many of the aforementioned aspects of the deal are eyebrow-raising indeed, and the skepticism expressed by fans outside of Seattle further demonstrates MLS' need for more transparency and simplicity when it comes to the business side of the game.
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