Listen, I'm not some sort of American patriot or anything but I do think American players get unnecessarily looked down upon. The US has made the knock out stages of the World Cup 3 of the last 4 cups and the MLS is roughly on the level of an Eastern European league. America is a decent footballing country, the only reason it doesn't appear so is because in comparison to its success in other sports, football just isn't on that level.
IMO you have to look at Yedlin roughly the same way as Eric Dier. Both are young, cheap and have upside. At the end of the day they are low risk/high upside transfer. Yedlin is cheaper and more athletic and barely six months older than Dier. Plus Yedlin actually had some decent run outs against the German and Belgian national teams which is more than Dier had on his CV. Also, had Yedlin not come here he was going to Roma who are a Champions League team and second in Serie A, it's not Spurs plucked him out of obscurity.
He's 21, cost 2m, and has potential. If we wasn't American I really don't think there would be any reservations about the guy. The tenor to the conversation about Yedlin is nowhere similar to when we signed Dier despite the fact that the particulars surrounding both of them are relatively comparable.
Can he play or can't he? I don't care about his nationality. You have let it colour your objectivity.