Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Diarra heads for Portsmouth - new deal for Flamini close?

It looks like the inevitable departure of Lassana Diarra is finally taking place - the holding midfielder is joining neither Manchester City, nor Tottenham. He is supposedly instead joining Portsmouth, who have gladly met the asking price of £5.5m and will be paying him around £60,000 a week.

Even though we are to pocket a decent profit of £3.5m, I feel we are being left a bit light at the holding midfield position. Diarra could have provided the perfect cover for Flamini (whether injured or departed altogether) and, if needed, a decent alternative on the right side of the midfield - although he has not played in the wing since his Chelsea days. Gilberto has been struggling to regain form and pace when assigned in the spot and, for obvious (but different) reasons, Denilson and Diaby are ill-suited to the position.

I am hoping this can only mean that Flamini is close to signing a new deal - interestingly enough, the Arsenal website has just posted Arsene Wenger's brief statement on the "ongoing"talks with Mathieu's agents. This would be the best way to put this rotten week behind us...

Saturday can't come soon enough...

No comments: