Harry Redknapp moves to wrest Lassana Diarra from Real Madrid

Posted Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by theguardian.com

Harry Redknapp moves to wrest Lassana Diarra from Real Madrid
Spurs' talks to acquire Lassana Diarra from Real Madrid are said to be going well.

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 £5.5m in January 2008 when he was in charge at Portsmouth and, 12 months later, the France international joined Real for £20m. 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 £7m 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 £10m. Although that would represent a loss to the Spanish club, the president, Florentino Pérez, could attribute it to the previous regime.

José Mourinho, the Real manager, who signed Diarra for £1m from Le Havre when he was at Chelsea and then sold him to Arsenal for £2m, has to trim his squad to 25 senior players to comply with the regulations. At present, his new midfield signing Mesut Ozil, who has joined for £12.4m 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. Ozil was forced to wear No26 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 Royston 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 that 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 that they would not sell to their neighbours. Redknapp has signed the Brazil midfielder Sandro from Internacional for £6m – 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 timethis morning yesterday, before he broke away to work on his own 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 [having played for Arsenal] but I am here now and I will give my best," he said. "Finishing fourth last season shows Spurs have improved a lot and I hope this season we are going to finish even higher, maybe even win the Premier League. We just have to believe in ourselves."

Tottenham have also confirmed that the midfielder Jamie O'Hara will undergo surgery on Thursday to address the stress fracture in his back that he suffered last season.