just reading about him, but isn't he a bit of mardy Frenchman. Do we need that?
I think, given a realistic chance of a first team place, Diarra would be a model professional. Yes, he's mouthed off, but that's only because Wenger misled him. I liked him at Chelsea, but he never played, and he was never going to given the form Makelele was in at the time, and then Mikel got bought for big bucks, so they weren't gonna throw Diarra in ahead of him. He was taken to Arsenal with a realistic prospect of more first-team football, but then that was at a time when Flamini was itching to leave and Gilberto was on the outer. Then all of a sudden Flamini got his game together and has been playing well...
Back to us though, we need a Diarra-type player, someone who breaks up the attacks constantly, and more or less gets on with his job unnoticed (a la Carsley). What's better about Diarra is that he can actually pick out a pass, and has a bit of creativity, which is what the midfield is crying out for when we don't have Pienaar and Arteta... I'd buy him, but not for £6m, upto, and including £4m.
As for Rodwell, he's not a midfielder, he was only brought on in the Alkmaar game in midfield to shore up the defensive aspect of the team. He's a centre-back, and a fairly good one at that. He [Poor language removed] himself when he came on, but the lad's have been giving him the banter, taking the piss out of him for being so young, but if he's good enough, he's old enough I say.