Tottenham are in talks over a move for Real Madrid midfielder Lassana Diarra, and according to the Guardian, talks are believed to be going in the right direction.
If the deal comes to pass, Diarra would be reunited with manager Harry Redknapp, who he played under for a little less than a year at Portsmouth before departing for Madrid in a £20m deal in January 2009. Redknapp signed Diarra from Arsenal in a £5.5m deal in January 2008, after he’d spent only half a season at the Emirates following a summer move from Chelsea.
Diarra was a teammate of new Spurs signing William Gallas at both Chelsea and Arsenal, and he was also a teammate of current Tottenham players Peter Crouch, Niko Kranjcar, and Younes Kaboul at Portsmouth, so, along with returning to London and being reunited with a former manager, even more familiarity would await him upon a move to White Hart Lane.
In his season and a half at Real, the 25-year-old has made 50 appearances, scoring one goal. After being a fixture in the starting lineup for the remainder of the 2008/09 season after his move from Portsmouth, making 19 La Liga starts, Diarra also made 19 league starts last season, but he didn’t start a game after 20 March and made only two substitute appearances from that point on.
With Real needing to trim the squad and having an abundance of midfielders, Diarra looks to be expendable, but he’ll come at a price, as it appears that Real would prefer to sell rather than loan, with the France international costing a potential buyer around £10m.
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