I heard on the football weekly pod today that Diarra is off to Newcastle for £5.5 mill. or at least he was before big sam was canned.

Anyone else heard anything?

It has been pretty widely reported in the papers that Sam wanted to sign him and it ws rumoured that the £5.5m price was agreed the day before Sam was sacked

According to TalkSPORT today it is rumoured that Diarra was on £20k a week at Chelsea, that was doubled to £40k at Arsenal and he wanted £90K to join Newcastle!!!!!!

So how the f**k does his value increase by some £3.5m whilst he's been kicking about in the Gooners reserves for the past few months? Once again we are complete mugs.

He'd be a good buy for a mid-table team like Nooocastle.

So how the F*** does his value increase by some £3.5m whilst he's been kicking about in the Gooners reserves for the past few months? Once again we are complete mugs.

i think the reason he left for so little money was because he was going to leave this month on a free so we just took what we could get

from the sounds of it, i think we did right getting rid. hes seems to have a big opinion of himself. i hate players who feel they should be 1st team then walk away without a fight. thats twice hes done it in the space of a year. good riddance.

What bugs me about the whole sitution is something that is more endemic to our approach in general - in that we are reactive rather than proactive when it comes to these sort of issues.

With Diarra, it was simply a case of getting anything we could, as his contract was due to run out, but why did we let it get to this point? The club must be aware of when everyone's contracts expire, so why don't they spend more money/time on tying these players down to new contracts and appeasing any doubts they have, well before the end is in sight, so that if/when they do want to move on, we are at least in a strong bargining position, rather than over a barrel.

Bolton got Nico (I can call him that now he's a blue ) to sign a new contract recently, probably knowling full well that he wouldn't be at the club for another 4 years. But, as a result, they have been able to demand a hell of a lot more cash from us, so even though they lose a great player, they've been very well compensated for this.

I don't have a huge range of examples to back up this post at the tip of my fingers to be honest, but I do get the feeling that the Club never seem to have the foresight to pre-empt any problems, so we are always scrabbling around to make the best of a bad situation. The dreadful timing of Jose's departure is another instance which springs to mind, as is the protracted discussions with Frank over a new deal.

Or maybe I'm just being grumpy....

Thats the point I was trying to make in another thread.

With Diarra, it was simply a case of getting anything we could, as his contract was due to run out, but why did we let it get to this point? The club must be aware of when everyone's contracts expire, so why don't they spend more money/time on tying these players down to new contracts and appeasing any doubts they have, well before the end is in sight, so that if/when they do want to move on, we are at least in a strong bargining position, rather than over a barrel.

Bolton got Nico (I can call him that now he's a blue ) to sign a new contract recently, probably knowling full well that he wouldn't be at the club for another 4 years. But, as a result, they have been able to demand a hell of a lot more cash from us, so even though they lose a great player, they've been very well compensated for this.

If the player is thinking of moving it wouldn't make sense for him to sign an extension which would make him more pricey and thus less attractive to any potential destination clubs... if he doesn't move then you're paying the player millions over the prolonged period in which you have no use for him. Financially they amount to almost the same thing. Though if the player was with you you can still use him if and when you want... but then there's potentially trouble with dissent which may affect the rest of the squad.

In Nico's case I don't think there was any transfer interest at the time when he signed the contract, and I don't think anyone else came in for him this time either?

Apparently it's Pompey instead of Newcastle

Diarra has (had) a lot of promise but it looks like his career is to be derailed due to his inflated opinion of himself. Shades of Anelka here.

Apparently it's Pompey instead of Newcastle

That's a great signing for Pompey. Shrewd old 'arry!!!

from the sounds of it, i think we did right getting rid. hes seems to have a big opinion of himself. i hate players who feel they should be 1st team then walk away without a fight. thats twice hes done it in the space of a year. good riddance.

Maybe he's not that good at communicating with people. The best thing for him is to move to a team who really needs him and will play him for sure. That way he can show what he is capable of.

Apparently it's Pompey instead of Newcastle

That's a great signing for Pompey. Shrewd old 'arry!!!

Having said that, he won't have got off to the best of starts with the Pompey Failthful.

Already admitting that Pompey are a "stepping stone" in his career and he doesn't plan to be their too long.

Will he never learn

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 193782.stm

gone to pompey.

Harry's nicked another good player

and the arse make a tidy £3.5M......

'arry with two promising ex Chelsea players. Will be interesting to see how he develops

Scott

Commitment seems to be a lost word for Portsmouth's new signing Lassana Diarra. On arrival from Arsenal he said: "The people at Portsmouth know I will not spend my life at this club. If I shine, if a really big club wants me, I know that everything will go well." (Various newspapers)

You gotta love him!

We bought him for x amount of money. Sold him to Arse*al for £2mill was it? And after he did nothing at le ars* wenger sold him to pompey for £5mill.. Wenger is in different class of buying and selling! Now that he got his £5mill he goes and buys some african guy from france who adjusts to EPL in a week and becomes a superstar... .

Where is the justice? Where is it?

I love that he says "if I shine, if big club wants me." he's had his chace with two big clubs so far, and done nothig, so what makes him think he will suddenly be on the radars of other big clubs

Scott

He should've stayed with us. I actually thought he was the closest thing we had to directly replacing Maka. You can't fully replace Maka, because there can only be one, mind you.

I was really disappointed we sold him. I really liked the look of the lad. Of course, he lacked the vision of Maka, but he was dynamic, could pass the ball pretty well, and he had quite an engine. I really thought we had a gem on our hands.

Surprised he didn't figure more for Arsenal, to be honest. They certainly don't have a Maka in their squad!

Cheers,

Butch

I think he is a player of considerable quality. He should have featured more for us if we had taken more of a long term outlook, should have featured more for Arsenal (and I thought he would) and my guess he will feature regularly for Pompey, impress and move to a bigger club within two seasons at the most.

I doubt he will be as good as Maka but that is no reason to not consider him, that would be a little like saying 'He isn't going to be as good a striker as Van Basten so we may as well let him go'