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Pompey confirm Diarra Real deal

Pompey have confirmed on the Pompey Site that a 'substantial offer' from Madrid has been accepted for Lassana Diarra.

A Pompey spokesman said: 'we have always said that we would only allow our players to leave if we received an exceptional bid.

'We could not stand in the way of a move such as this for Lassana.

'It shows how far the club has come under the ownership of Alexandre Gaydamak when Real Madrid come in for one of our players.

'Should the deal be completed, the club has already identified possible replacements.'

The Frenchman will now travel to Madrid to talk terms with the deal concluded when the January transfer window reopens - so unfortunately we will not get to see him in a Pompey shirt again, as had been hoped at least one more time before he went...

Quite how much this 'substantial offer' is remains unknown, anything from £9m-£24m is touted, if the lower figure that is in no way 'substantial', if the latter then that is very, very good business!

I am hearing it is £16.5m, which I think is just about enough to be honest, as I have always said £15m plus would be the minimum, and to see him go to a world class outfit like Madrid softens the blow as well. In theory this 'should' allow us to keep other star names at least?

We will miss him, without a doubt, but this day was always going to come - lets just hope that we do genuinely have someone lined up, although clearly they will not be as talented as him, and Tony Adams can spend a chunk of that money on new players, or at least turn loans into permanent deals...

PLAY UP POMPEY!

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Writer: pompeyrug

Date:Wednesday December 17 2008

Time: 10:14AM

Your Comments

ouch! not good... "substancial" MUST be well above 15million. We rejected to "above 15 million" offers in the summer, so this must be 20+million? surely...

pompeycarpet

£21.5m is the fee, but of course this is staggered over a number of years. Hope we also inserted clauses, as I've got a feeling he'll be moving on again in a couple of years

pooky

He's a dolphin headed ****, wish him every failure. Mug.

shewore

lol!!! love it shewore! dont agree though, I couldnt deny him Real Madrid, surley we all knew he'd be gone sooner than later..I for one think hes an absolutley fantasic player and one of the very big boys would snap him up! If it 20 million, thats a good profit, I dont want to hear about replacements though, I dont think he can be replaced..not this side of 10 million anyway!....gutted, but inevitable.

CharlieChimes

Rug, if we have got anything above £15M for him then it is very good business, sorry to see him go as I do believe he is a talent. Lets hope Sascha allows Tony to use some of the cash for a couple of replacements. Jimmy Bullard and Gary O for me.

bluedr

If it is the 20 million being reported on Sky that has to be viewed as great business. Good luck to the lad, he made no secret of the fact he wanted to play at the highest level. I hope the move works out for him, he played for us during our marvellous cup winning season, and was a massive influence on the team. Now we will see how bad/good things are at the club when the money arrives.

Owenspompey

In your face citeh! If he has to go, then im glad its Madrid and £20M ish makes the loss a bit easier. Spend it wisely Tone!

SUAC51

Come on guys, the blokes IN the shirts care FAR less about PFC than the people paying to watch them. There's no need to take it personally! Someone offered me £21m - to do virtually anything, let alone something I love doing - I'd bite their hand off. Good luck to the bloke, it's great to have a reputation as a club where you can play and then go off and earn big bucks...we'll get more young talent through like that. Unless we get bought up by Arabs, we'll never be somewhere that can hold on to real talent for long so we might as well get a good through-flow of superstars rather than muppets.

hammersmithblue

Mind you how come he did not sign for the two biggest teams in Britain/Europe/World football, by that i mean the Spuds and Citeh!! Not as big as you tell everyone are you lads?

Owenspompey

How long before "HR" starts claiming the credit?

007

About six oclock this evening 007, Harry likes a bit of praise, it is a change from the "bare bones" speech.

Owenspompey

Lassie is without doubt one of the great midfield players in the world and we should be honoured he spent a year with us. Earning us £15m+ profit as well is a huge double bonus. Good luck Lassie, a very gutted..

eastneydave

Not long 007. He was crying yesterday at how much work Spurs still have to do and fighting relegation is still a priority. Pathetic.[br][br]Anyway a tribute to quite arguably the greatest footballer to ever grace Fratton Park you became a fans favourite within five minutes of your debut because of the passion and quality you showed. Our team looks very light in midfield now having sold both Sulley and Lassina.

stillthewhizz

Won't Arsenal get a big chunk of this? I bet theyve got a sell on clause...

SUAC51

Excellent bit of Business. apparently SKY are saying club have confirmed its 21.5m raising to 24m with Champions league and other cup succeses over next 2 years, plus a sell on clause too. Nice one Mr Storrie.

Midge

A friend of mine who is an arsenal season ticket holder, syas he has spoken to others and they dont think the club put a sell on clause in... lol if they didnt, we used to make that mistake, so if they havent, its more money for us Lets all have a disco....

Midge

Sorry to see him go, but we all knew it would happen. So pleased he's to a geniunely top club I would have been really miffed if he'd gone to Citeh. Lets hope Tony can do some good spending with that money. Good luck Lassa and thank you.

tracyc

sorry to see him go but tbh he lasted longer than i thought he would - 'if' we have got £21.5m rising to a possible £24m that is amazing business, with no sell-on and a sell on for us if he leaves madrid that would be incredible business... now show us some of that money to make sure we dont go down the pan!
hopefully this means that unless players want to go - in which case let them! - we 'should' be be in a position to keep most others, but we have to be loyal to them aswell...

pompeyrug

21.5 is a lot of money... but we will need to bring a player in that can fill the hole left by sulley, mendes and diara. That is not going to be cheap, and CERTAINLY will not be easy. I wouldn't be surprised if it cost most of that to bring in a replacemnt... Arsharvin anyone?

pompeycarpet

Arshavin is that slang for sack back and crack lol

Midge

Rumour Mill - Views and thoughts welcome guys and gals (Tracie xxx).... I have heard, from a source, 50% this person gets bang on, 50% miles from the mark, so lets wait and see. . . . Anyway i will continue, Kingston Attacking Midfield Ghanian £3m for the Right side problem. Patrik Vierra on a Free for the Midfield tactician problem, leaving £18m to invest in 2 more quality players, a Left back and another Midfielder with pace (I assume because Vierra may have quality but not pace????)... Over to the floor for views and thoughts etc.

Midge

its good to see him go to a quality club rather than city or spurs. if there is a sell on then wouldnt mind city offer 130m for him in the summer! lets hope the payment isnt staggered though, i have a feeling that we wont get all the money in that case. benjani is likely to play for city much longer after city buy all these world-class strikers, so we wont see that money either. the only problem is, i cant see us getting a suitable replacement for diarra for any price under what we recieved for him, hes that good. if he does the deal with real in time, surely he can return to england and still play for us against west ham and arsenal?

jbaker

Engelaar (?) -the Dutch lad available for 6-7 million. Not an Identit-Kit replacement but quality none the less

yellowcheesemonkey

Viera for me, at least till the end of the current season and Kingston on a permanant deal. Gary O'Neill would be good for us as well, and would help give us alternatives in central midfield.

Owenspompey

Inevitable I guess. Glad that he's going to Real and not another PL side. Thanks Lassie and good luck - it was a real pleasure watching you, albeit a brief one.

NinjaTim

I just hope Sacha's not looking to get some of his money back from this. We will see in January whether any of the other stars go, if we are now able to keep everybody and add 2 or 3 others, central and rightsided midfielders and another defender we will be stronger. I think Sacha would want a decent squad to keep the sale price up, if we got relegated the price would drop like a stone. Still I can't wait for Feb 3, this window is going to be nervewracking.

ashfordblue

sad to see him go but with out a doubt he is a world class player.21 mill for him is a good deal for us.We can now go and buy some good quality players.I agree with you lot about viera he will be good for us he has prem experience as well.Kingston not sure never seen him play but heard he is a good prospect.O'neil i would welcome back but i think we have moved on from them days.I personally think viera , pennant will come in but i think we should go for annan of rosenberg he is a young ghanaian and plays like diarra also much younger.

stfc ballboy

Stephen Appiah is still looking for somewhere to play, could he be the answer to our midfield problems?

Owenspompey

I'm made up. We all knew he was going and I quite appreciated his honesty from day one. Steve Claridge was quoted on another site saying that he believes that now Diarra's gone there will be an exodus from Fratton Park. Always the optimist, I can't see it myself and I hope that getting a nice fat 20 mil in the bank will shut up some of the financial doom-mongers. Play up Pompey!

Squee

Slightly off topic here - but I've just seen on the Vital Chelsea site that Ivanovic may have handed in a transfer request... would he be a good man to bring in to replace the aging sol?

pompeycarpet

well i think i was right when i said earlier in the month that he has been wrapped up in the xmas paper already which is why he has been out "injured" and that we would never see him in a pompey shirt again. now the rest will go and good riddance as they don't want to be there and are not performing for Tony. get in some kids and let take the championship by storm

plymouth graham

Claridge, the prophet of doom as per normal. If players want to go, then they will go, we have to move on, buy replacements, secure the youngsters and build on what we have. Maybe Glen will go, but we have full backs, not as good, but they will have to do.

Owenspompey

Tony has told 5 that he will be able to spend every penny of the money we will get from the sale... who said we had money problems?

pompeycarpet

Harry already is claiming the credit.. but to be fair he did buy him for sweet f all! it was obvious that we were gonna make some money from the Dolphin head. Really glad that he wont be playing against us next season, and hopefully we can keep a few players at the club now as well

nodster

definitely would like to see appiah come in, a qulity player and no transfer fee - what more could we want? after tonight, even if johnno does go, it looks like wilson could do a pretty good job too - he put in some fantastic crosses. apparently the permanent deal for belhadj is sorted too, which is excellent news. wouldnt mind us trying to get in pennant, and i heard rumours today about michael johnson and tom huddlestone.

jbaker

HR should take the credit for this. Good bit of business. I just hope he doesn't do the same to us.

Pompeyscum

pompeyscum - the problem was, EVERYONE knew it was a good bit of buisness. EVERY club was going for him - we were simply the lucky ones that he chose. ok, that could be Harry pursuasive skills, but I have a feeling that Sascha may have bankrolled a slightly larger salary too.

pompeycarpet

Shame to see him go but just like everyone else, I have to say that £21 million is a great bit of business!

sneakay

I'm reading Arsenal put a 25% sell on clause, which is £5m if Diarra goes for £20m!!!!!

storagematt

Arsenal here, apparently we do have 25% sell on for him which is about right with Arsene's record. All the best with the money though, here hopes Mr Arsenal spends it wisely!

shewore

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