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Fulham have made a formal complaint to the Premier League about the tapping up of Clint Dempsey by Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool, the Premier League has confirmed in a statement.
One thing is clear though: this has nothing to do with the FSG post claiming Dempsey had been signed on the NESN website. This is only a complaint that Rodgers discussed their enquiry of Dempsey in public when asked by the media. The complaint was filed in July, and Liverpool have apparently already responded to it.
The Premier League stated:
“The PL has received a complaint from Fulham regarding comments made by Liverpool officials and is currently looking into [it].”
The same day the NESN story was accidentally put up, Brendan Rodgers was questioned by reporters about the issue. He said the following:
“Clint is a player we’ve inquired about, it is as simple as that. Ian Ayre, our managing director, has spoken with the club to see what the position is. That is where we’re at. He’s a very talented player but we don’t like to talk about other clubs’ players.”
It’s a hilariously obvious quote, and if Rodgers was trying to tap up Clint, which he clearly was, he could have at least hid it a little better. “We don’t like to talk about other clubs’ players” but you just did, revealing everything about your pursuit of the guy. Nice going, Brendan.
Fulham made it very obvious they weren’t pleased at all with Rodgers comments or the story on NESN, which was hastily removed, so to hear this news isn’t a surprise at all. We’ll see if anything comes of it.
Martin Jol also confirmed today at a press conference that still no bid has been made for Clint, and the situation remains the same. He’s been excluded from the squad traveling to Old Trafford this weekend.
To sum this all up, a funny quote from Jol in the same press conference today when asked about the possibility of signing Maarten Stekelenburg:
“We never speak about players coming in or going out. We keep it to ourselves because we are not Manchester United.”
Or Liverpool.
