SOCCER:HARRY REDKNAPP has made a move to sign Lassana Diarra from Real Madrid and talks with the midfielder are believed to be progressing positively.
The Tottenham Hotspur manager signed Diarra for €6.7 million in January 2008 when he was in charge at Portsmouth and, 12 months later, the France international joined Real for €24.5 million.
Redknapp continues to rate Diarra not only as one of his best ever pieces of business but as a high-quality player and, having failed in his attempt to bolster his midfield options with the €8.5 million bid for the West Ham United captain Scott Parker, he has turned to Diarra – who could follow William Gallas in playing for Chelsea, Arsenal and now Spurs.
Real do not want to loan the 25-year-old and his value as a permanent transfer would be in the region of €12.2 million.
Although that would represent a loss to the Spanish club, the president, Florentino Perez, could attribute it to the previous regime.
Jose Mourinho, the Real manager, who signed Diarra for €1.2 million from Le Havre when he was at Chelsea and then sold him to Arsenal for €2.4 million, has to trim his squad to comply with the regulations. At present, his new midfield signing Mesut Özil, who has joined for €15.2 million from Werder Bremen, does not have a recognised squad number and so Mourinho must lose at least one of the players who currently occupy the numbers one to 25. Özil was forced to wear number 26 in a pre-season friendly.
The players who are most vulnerable are the two Diarras – Lassana and Alou – Rafael van der Vaart, Fernando Gago and Roysten Drenthe but Mourinho has come to appreciate Lassana Diarra’s versatility in pre-season, when he has filled in successfully at right-back. Diarra, though, knows Mourinho is blessed with an abundance of midfield options and he fears that his starting opportunities will be limited.
Tottenham have attempted to sign Diarra on previous occasions - ironically, they lost out to Redknapp in January 2008, when Arsenal made it clear they would not sell to their neighbours. Redknapp has signed the Brazil midfielder Sandro from Internacional for €7.3 million – he arrives later this week, having been crowned as a Copa Libertadores champion – but Redknapp is always on the lookout for players that he thinks can improve his squad.
Diarra is one and Gallas is another. The central defender, who has joined on a one-year contract, warmed up with his new team-mates for the first time yesterday, before he broke away to work on his fitness programme.
Gallas is ineligible for the second-leg of the Champions League play-off against Young Boys of Bern, having not been registered ahead of the first leg, which Tottenham lost 3-2, but he is eager to settle and put the controversy of his move behind him. “It was not an easy decision but I am here now and I will give my best,” he said.
The BBC is content to leave the Premier League to scrutinise Alex Ferguson’s continued refusal to grant post-match interviews when their board meets at the end of next month after the Manchester United manager refused to end his six-year boycott of the organisation.
Ferguson has not given a post-match interview to the BBC since 2004 after allegations were made about his son, Jason, who was then working as a football agent, in a Panorama documentary entitled Father and Son and broadcast on BBC Three. The United manager demanded an apology, which the BBC has consistently refused to supply, leading to the lengthy stand-off.
Premier League managers are now required to speak to broadcasting rights-holders after games, yet Ferguson still declined to speak with the BBC at Craven Cottage on Sunday after drawing 2-2. Instead, he made his assistant Mike Phelan and the defender Nemanja Vidic available to comment. That has left United open to a growing fine, likely to start at around €1,225.
The BBC stressed yesterday the matter is “for the Premier League and Manchester United”, though the organisation appears resigned to another season without Ferguson’s input.
GuardianService
