Manchester United Needs to Make Room for Fulham's Clint Dempsey

It's no secret that Manchester United has—to put it mildly—an experienced midfield.

Since the most recent winter transfer window shut, manager Sir Alex Ferguson has fielded lineups that put Paul Scholes on the field with Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick.

It may not look like it on the pitch, but that's a midfield with a combined age of 105!

Now, I have to hand it to Ferguson, the three veterans have worked out better than expected for the club with Giggs finally giving the Red Devils the holding midfielder they needed and Scholes and Carrick are keeping the young players composed when things are on the brink of breaking down.

But the fountain of youth is going to run dry at Old Trafford sooner rather than later and Ferguson needs to be looking elsewhere for reinforcements to the midfielder ranks.

Enter Clint Dempsey.

Even though stats tell the most limited of stories, the 29-year-old American has been lighting up the Premier League this season. Dempsey is on his way to a career year, scoring 12 goals and putting himself ahead the likes of Mario Balotelli, Emmanuel Adebayor, Grant Holt and Frank Lampard—some of England's best scorers.

But it's the way Dempsey plays—and scores—that would make him an absolute dream pickup for Manchester United.

Ferguson is an old-school manager, not swayed by the way the game—especially in England—has become faster, more individualized. No, Ferguson loves when a goal-scorer has three, four or even five players to thank for setting up the play in the first place.

Dempsey is first and foremost a technical player with great vision, running plays like a quarterback and directing teammates with skill that borders on telepathy. He's not a fast, quick player who's going to try to dart around an opponent, opting rather to use his stamina to get himself anywhere on the pitch and support attacking and defending opportunities.

But that's not to say he's not aggressive. For all his vision, discipline, awareness and intelligence, he will make a run at an opponent without a second thought, breaking along the flank. He pairs creativity and unselfishness like no other when there's opportunities for teammates to score, but has the killer instinct to finish it off when he knows he has the best chance at putting the ball in the back of the net.

His versatility is also second to none, playing across the entire midfield during the span of his career, even filling in at striker for several U.S. men's national team appearances.

For Manchester United to come knocking, Dempsey will need to finish out the season as strongly as he began it. If he does—and there's little standing in his way as Fulham have seven opponents left in the bottom half of the league table—he may very well join the likes of Jonathan Spector, Tim Howard and Giuseppe Rossi as the only Americans to suit up for Manchester United.

Manchester United needs an experienced veteran in midfield whose tires still have some tread on them. Clint Dempsey needs a bigger platform than Fulham can provide him, with AOL Sporting News reporting Dempsey as saying "If one day I get the opportunity to play for a big club, in the Champions League, that'll be great...I'd lie if I said that wasn't a dream."

It's a match made in heaven, but only if the Red Devils brass wises up and puts a respectable offer in front of the best player this side of the Atlantic.