Mahamadou Diarra

Found this on Sky Sports, for what it's worth....

Liverpool face competition from UEFA Champions League rivals Internazionale in the race to sign Real Madrid midfielder Mahamadou Diarra, according to the player's agent.

Reds manager Rafa Benitez is understood to be a long-term admirer of the £20million-rated 25-year-old, who joined Real in 2006 from Lyon.

However, Benitez faces tough competition from Italian trio Inter - who the Reds face in the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday - Milan and Juventus if he is to tempt Diarra away from the Bernabeu.

A bit of information about him, from Wikipedia:

Biography
Diarra started his career with Greek side OFI Crete and Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem. He played for French club Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon) from 2002 until 2006, winning four Ligue 1 titles. Diarra was compared to top French midfielders like Patrick Vieira and Claude Makélélé. Many people who have worked with him, including former Vitesse Arnhem manager Ronald Koeman, felt that Diarra had the potential to succeed at the highest sporting level, but that he needed to learn how to control his strong temperament.

Real Madrid
He was rated very highly by Lyon manager Gérard Houllier, who said that Diarra would not be leaving Lyon cheaply. His €40 million price tag matched the price Chelsea F.C. paid Lyon for Michael Essien in the summer 2005. Real Madrid joined in the race to sign Diarra, along with Manchester United, and on August 18, 2006 Real Madrid reached an agreement with Lyon for €26 million. On August 22, he was unveiled at the Santiago Bernabeu by Real Madrid president Ramón Calderón, and he was assigned the number 6 shirt; Iván Helguera's prior season shirt number.

In the 2006-2007 season, Diarra was a staple player in Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello's 2-defensive midfielder system; however, a string of poor results saw Diarra relegated to the bench in favor of a new system. Guti, a more offensive-minded midfielder replaced him, while Capello favored Brazilian Emerson in the defensive position. By mid-December, Diarra, complaining about lack of playing time, found himself a regular on the Real Madrid bench. In May 2007 Diarra was linked with a summer move to Italian side AC Milan. In the final game of the season, however, Diarra headed in a match-winning goal in Madrid's come-from-behind victory over Real Mallorca. Diarra put in a strong overall performance in the match, which Madrid went on to win 3-1. The victory saw Madrid win La Liga and end its longest trophy drought in half a century. Diarra's main strength is his workrate and his power in the air, but his only weakness is his temperament. He was one of Madrid's best players when they won the league. Diarra was supposed to be playing for Mali instead of Madrid in the last match of the season, but FIFA ordered him to play for Madrid in that game.

Possible Move to Liverpool
According to many newspaper reports Diarra claimed he wanted a move to the Premierleague and he said Liverpool were his favourite team who he would prefer. This statement was released on the 17th of February 2008.

Any opinions about him? I don't really think he would bring much to our team or midfield, as we have more need of a playmaker/out-and-out stirker IMO, plus the price tag could be pretty high.

F***ing hell if this is true then this is the wrong attitude to winning silverware. We've got decent defensive players and now we need to look for the offensive part.

Great player. Fantastic work ethic.  A mixture of Xabi and Masch without being as good as either two in their strongest virtues, i.e., passing and tackling respectively.

Best way to describe him is think of the early great performances of Momo.

Rarely has a bad game, but gets visibly distracted and angry when the oppo wants to mix-it.

But if he comes (or just the rumour of another midfield) ...must truly mean the exit of Xabi is on the cards in the summer.

Don't think he is worth GBP 20M though - more like GBP 12M (EUR 17M).... bit over-priced, but hey the market ...mainly thanks to Roman's cheque book... went truly crazy a long, long time ago...

IRWT

If this rumour is true then  for the F***ing life of me i dont know what Rafa is thinking, he is not better than Xabi and Masch, Mascherano is far superior IMO froevery aspect. That would be 38 million on two defensive midfielders we dont need them we need goals, play makers and poachers. Surely this is media bullshit.

If this rumour is true then  for the F***ing life of me I dont know what Rafa is thinking, he is not better than Xabi and Masch, Mascherano is far superior IMO froevery aspect. That would be 38 million on two defensive midfielders we dont need them we need goals, play makers and poachers. Surely this is media bullshit.

Not better because Xabi (on his day, in the past) and currently Masch are the best passers and tacklers on planet earth respectively. 

Diarra can do both jobs without being better than either of those two in their strongest departments on their best days... which in Xabi's case sadly seems to have already been played for us unfortunately.

When you consider that Diarra can create and destroy - some may say he is probably a better all round player.  I wouldn't swap him for Masch (on current world-class form)... but I would seriously think of having him instead of Xabi (on current form).

I would seriously think of having him instead of Xabi (on current form).

For £20 million?

For £20 million?

No, not for that sort of money, no... but then again, the market has gone loopy for some time and quality BARGAINS and I mean word-class QUALITY - just don't exist that much at the highest level of the game... do they?

Nope, I think this is mainly speculation anyway... Rafa needs to get seriously specific about the few players he will be able to get hold of this summer. This is one of the positions where we have world class players already, it's time to reinforce the others if we want a shout for silverware next year.

Hope this doesnt happen we have Mashcerano to do the job i can see Xabi leaving in the summer so maybe a small outlay of up to £10mil for cover if he Mascherano is injured or we can always play Gerrard there so would be a waste purchasing Diarra when there are other areas the money could be better spent on.

Xabi i think is gone, doesnt seem to be as enthusiastic anymore and that could be the sign of his departure. Not Diarra though, media bullshit.

Xabi I think is gone, doesnt seem to be as enthusiastic anymore and that could be the sign of his departure. Not Diarra though, media bullshit.

I agree Alonso does not appear to have the drive and enthusiasm these days,dont know if this is due to his injuries  or a genuine loss of form.Regarding Diarra the only decent player we had from France was Anelka.We had plenty of imposters the likes of Bruno Cheyrou and his white boots.

If he gets that wound up in La Ligue then how the F**k will he cope with the prem? especially when the opposition start bootin the F**k out of him!!

If he gets that wound up in La Ligue then how the F**k will he cope with the prem? especially when the opposition start bootin the F**k out of him!!

So very true neilh.