Arsenal to make millions from Diarra sell-on

Lassana Diarra’s reported move to Real Madrid could land Arsenal with a sizeable windfall.

The Portsmouth midfielder looks set to complete a £20m deal to real Madrid in January and the Gunners could scoop up to 25% of the transfer fee having insisted on a ‘sell-on’ clause being added to the Frenchman’s contract rather than a buy-back option. It was reported in the summer that Arsenal scooped an approximate £6m from the inflated fee paid by Spurs to Blackburn for out-of-form winger David Bentley in a similar deal.

Arsene Wenger is known to have been frustrated at Diarra’s impatience during his short spell in North London and despite asking the player to bide his time was apparently forced to sell the midfielder to prevent morale in the camp from being affected.

Diarra’s decision to leave the Gunners was followed by the departure of Mathieu Flamini and Gilberto Silva and has seen the likes of Denilson, Alex Song and Abou Diaby all move into the first XI.

Fans are believed to be widely disgruntled in the discrepancy in quality between the previous central midfielders and the current incumbents and are desperate for their French manager to spend big on an experienced player in January. Any money from the Diarra deal could well finance moves for Xabi Alonso, Yaya Toure or Daniele de Rossi.

We should have had a buy-back option. He is the next makelele, a Defensive midfielder whom we really needed after the exit of flamini.