Saturday, 20th August, 2011
Tottenham Hotspur appear to have played the waiting game to perfection over Real Madrid midfielder Lassana Diarra.
The French enforcer was declared surplus to requirements at the Bernabeu at the start of the summer and Jose Mourinho did not take the 26-year-old on the club’s tour of the North America and Asia.
However, despite interest in the former Portsmouth man, Real Madrid set the bar too high, demanding €20M for Diarra and declaring he would not leave for a cent less.
As time has moved on though Los Blancos have been forced to change that stance and recently reduced the player’s price to €18M – yet still there were no acceptable offers.
Now Tottenham look to have got their man for just over €12M, an amount that boss Harry Redknapp will consider a bargain.
Diarra joined Real Madrid in 2009, moving from English side Portsmouth.
The Frenchman knows the Premier League well, having turned out for Chelsea and Arsenal in addition to the south coast club.
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