The New Adventures of Lassie

Uncle Harry will look after him.

Very harsh to criticise the lad. He's clearly highly rated and with Euro2008 soon, he needs regular first team football to make the French squad. It shows that international football is important to many footballers despite what some fans think. With leading teams, it is impossible to keep everyone happy especially with so many full internationals in each squad

The criticism of Diarra is not due to his desire for 1st team football (heck, the whole Arsenal squad wants exactly that), but in the manner in which he handled it. His attitude is poor despite the lads' obvious talent. I'm happy to see him go, the deal has seen a profit for the club, the player will hopefully get what he wants.

He seems like he has a terrible attitude, and only cares about international football. SUprised harry went for him to be honest

what crap, why will we go for a player who plays in the reserve team of some team lol..

Correct, how thick do I feel ... his birthdate is actually 29.05.1990 .. never good at maths at school

Diarra's an effin pr*ck! i'm glad he's gone. I hope Flamini now takes his place in the France midfield too. We need players wit the right attitude, not brats!

The sad thing is, he really honestly could have made it here.

I'm gutted that Diarra's going. His attitude may have been poor (but then none of us know the exact in's & out's of his original conversation before he signed & there may well have been a misunderstanding about games). He is a quality player & showed that in the few appearances he made for us, besides which Gilberto is an awful back-up player to have. Gilberto takes weeks to get any form going, so as a sub or bit part player he may as well not be there & he is hardly the future anyway. Flamini hasn't said anything which suggests he will stay or even that he wants to stay, infact right now it seems more likely that he will go in the summer. All that leaves us with is Denilson, who was terrific at times last season but this year seems to have had less playing time & as a result hasn't progressed at all. Defensively the squad looks very weak to me, we have only two decent centre backs (1 of which is away for weeks) & our defensive midfield players all seem unhappy & want out!! Loaning Diarra out for the remainder of this season would have surely been the better option?

If you are going to get an inflated fee January is the time to go for it. However Wenger invests the money, whatever it is, is fine with me. He hasn't done too badly so far has he.

But it won't be this 'so far' at the end of the season!

Stupid, short-sighted, impatient, moronic thing to do. Have a nice career Diarra, if this story is accurate. You were a mug.

i'll only believe this news once wenger gives a press conference.. once again, i think that both flamster n diarra may stay on with us

yep if you have successful youth players coming through you can't expect to hold on to them all when the money comes calling

Apart from the fact we have lost an extremely good player, I really don't understand why Wenger continues to allow excellent players to join teams that could quite easily be close rivals next season. Ferguson would never allow good players to join a premier league rival especially if they had 3-4 years left on their contract.

next season, pompey may take points of arsnal. that is the only real threat we will pose to you - as whilst it is possible we will be chalenging for champions league, on current form, it will be to take liverpools place, not yours.

I knew he was surplus to our requirements when he signed for us. Yet about 80% of you guys thought he was a good signing for us on the poll. The only things that are bothering me are that why were Portsmouth willing to pay 5M to secure the services of this guy and why there is no offical statement on Arsenal.com??? Any ideas?

This is a real shame.. he could have been a great success here, I hate seeing him go, but im glad that its to pompey... thats a great signing for them too. He was too impatient, yes.. but what a talent.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2242334,00.html

Yes Entropy13, that was the line that kinda jumped out and made me go "What?" Even Anelka who's had 9 clubs (including a loan spell) didn't quite say something like "They know I won't spend my life at this club." I feel bad for Pompey and Harry Redknapp. If the transfer fee's indeed close to the 5m reported, I'm just glad Arsene's closed yet another good deal money wise in such a short period of time. Someone at Chelsea must be rolling their eyes gutted they got a smaller cut.

Considering his competition in the French NT (not necessarily as first-choice) are Sagna (at RB) and Flamini (at DM), I still see his chances dim.

LD, if we significantly weakened chelski in the cole/gallas swap, why do they continually have a better defensive record than us?? Bentley is a standout player at Blackburn. Lauren was sold to portsmouth, Ljungberg to West Ham. Yes, they may have had injuries but both are capable of providing other qualities to assist the sides. My point being that Ferguson would fight to the end (eg Heinze) to stop a player he considers good going to another premier league team & we don't. Diarra would clearly improve any club he went to, so he should have been told to get on with it or that he has to go abroad & I can't believe you actually think Campbell told Wenger he was leaving for another country. If that was the case Arsenal would've been entitled to compensation (from Campbell) after he joined Portsmouth. A gentlemans agreement would hold just as much sway in court as a signed contract!! The fact was Campbell said he was looking to go abroad but at the end of the day no offers were made to him so he either joined a premier league team or quit football.

With the exception of Bentley AG, all of those players you mentioned are entering their twilight years in their respective careers, only Sol has gone on to produce consistent performances worthy of an Arsenal shirt, and this is a nice surprise but I can't say I think a mistake was made in selling him, given his increasingly erratic behaviour and lapses in play at the time, it obviously is'nt Wengers style to ransom players against their will and he most likely views Diarra as more hassle than he's worth, when we're in the position we're in, all hands need to be pulling in the same direction and Diarra clearly was'nt so get shot before he damages morale.

i cant genuinly beleive he would say that he would go if a bigger club came calling! he has been at chelsea and arsnal now - and did not ever get regular first team football - he has a chance to show what he can do - but harry wont play him if he doesnt like his attitude. having said that, i think harry will sort him out...hes quite good at that...

Have been told it's in the region of £3million, not 100% though!!

So judging by the many comments on here I take it all those that are slating Diarra for wanting first team football would be happy to have players sitting on the bench who don't give a s*** whether they are actually going to play or not!! Personally I prefer the attitude of a player who wants to play!!

AG I think the frustration for many of us is that we think he could actually be the number 1 player ahead of Flamini and Gilberto in that role. All he had to do was wait for his chance (as Flamini did) and the shirt would have been his to lose. Silly boy with a short term attitude. If we had injuries to that area he could have played in the san siro...Fratton park aint bad tho.

The european championships are next summer & Diarra wanted to be part of it, therefore he couldn't sit around & wait indefinately. He made no secret of the fact he left Chelski for first team football, so why is everyone so surprised that he was upset at not playing? He may only be 22 but if he doesn't keep his place in the French national team now there is the possibility he will never get it back again.........As for Flamini waiting patiently for his chance, thats a total misconception. When he joined us he clearly wasn't good enough to be anywhere near the first team (Diarra on the other hand was), he also wasn't going to budge a player like Vieira out the side. He then filled in at left back before deciding he didn't want to play that position so refused to play there even when arsenal desperately needed someone to fill in. The only reason he didn't leave for Birmingham this past summer was due to the fact his contract was coming up & he clearly felt it was more beneficial to stay at arsenal & maybe get a bigger club than Birmingham interested & even if that didn't happen he would still have got a better contract elsewhere this coming summer due to the fact the club wouldn't have had to pay a transfer fee. I really think this is one transfer that will come back & haunt us over & over again. As for Flamini, I don't see him chomping at the bit to sign a new deal so maybe his commitment should be called into question.

I'd also like to point out that Flamini never refused to play left back, he played there away at Fulham last season and he finished our game at Anfield there this season. All he said was that he didn't want it to be his permanent position, in the long term, that has proved much better for Arsenal. His performances have proved that, unlike Diarra, he had the confidence in himself to prove himself as a central midfielder, he has been vindicated for that, but continues to appear at full back when needed. Where this fallacy about him refusing to play there comes from I've absolutely no idea, but the facts prove it to be a total misconception. Personally, I wouldn't begrudge Flam if he did leave, he's seen out his contract and been uber professional, you can't ask for more than that. You're right that Flamini had nothing to lose this season, my opinion is that he thought, "I'll give it one last go and if it doesn't take, then I might get myself a good club by trying." There is nothing reproachable in that attitude at all, he's got ambition, like Diarra, but he has intelligence, something Diarra is sadly lacking, which will be an enormous detriment to his career.

The middle two paragraphs pretty much paints an artistic picture of Diarra and his attitude. Could of been a legend at Arsenal, but let the midget leave, he'll soon regret it.

I totally understand Diarra's thinking and although I dont like his attitude, wouldnt complain that he wants to leave. What really grates is that he has to stir it up in public when he could have easily gone to Arsene in private to do this. I hope he gets a right kick in the nuts and Flamini keeps him out of the French team.