“We would like to keep Jozy, but we also know that everyone has a price, and there may come a time when, from a business standpoint, you have to do something,” he said. “It’s something you learn over the years, how to feel when the time is right. And if your scouting is good, any time you lose a player you have a No. 2 option already in place.”

One of Dempsey’s Tottenham teammates, the star midfielder Gareth Bale, has been the focus of transfer talk in recent weeks. Tottenham Manager Andres Villas-Boas had stated repeatedly that he wanted to keep Bale, the top player in the Premier League last season. But those assertions did not keep powerful Real Madrid from swooping in anyway and trying to determine if it could pry him away with a lavish offer.

That Bale still had three more years left on his Spurs contract did not seem to matter.

It would be virtually unthinkable in the United States for a team to feel that it had no choice but to give up a star player still signed for three more seasons, but in soccer, it is different. As it turned out, Tottenham made it clear that it would not be pressured or tempted or seduced by any amount of money to surrender Bale, at least for now, and he will stay at Tottenham for the 2013-14 season.

Of course, that will not keep Real Madrid from trying again next summer, perhaps with Bale lobbying to leave at that point and perhaps with Madrid being willing to fork over more than the record £80 million (more than the $120 million) that it paid Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009.

“It only takes one buyer,” said Jerome de Bontin, who spent seven years as an executive with Monaco in the French league and is now the general manager of Major League Soccer’s Red Bulls. “It is not as if there is an auction. There is just one sporting director and one head coach and one owner who may believe that a certain player is going to help them win.”

De Bontin added: “I came from the financial world, and it is the opposite of that. There is no transparency, no regulation. In many ways, it is a totally irrational market.”