Good news. please log in to view this image FULHAM will wait until Mahamadou Diarra returns to full fitness before making a decision on his future. The Mali midfielder hasn't featured for the Whites since December due to a serious knee injury. Diarra, 32, is a free agent after his deal expired in the summer but is still training at Motspur Park as he tries to prove his fitness to Martin Jol. âHe is doing a lot of ball work and the warm-up with us,â Jol said of the former Real Madrid star. âHe needs another three or four weeks before playing games with us or the reserves and then we will make a decision on him.â Source: http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/fu...=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#ixzz2chCAQYIJ What a terrific addition to the squad he would be if it works out. Diarra himself has said heâll be ready by October. Fingers crossed.
If he comes back and does as well as he has done in the past, he'll be a good addition. I still think he was as big a miss as Dembele and Murphy in CM last season.
Definitely, but like it was with Grygera, there's little chance that he will ever go back to being as good as he was prior to the injury. I'd keep him on in a coach capacity though, could teach the likes of Kasami/David a trick or two.
Diarra is still hanging in there hoping for a Fulham contract, according to his agent: "Diarra's agent Frederic Guerra has rubbished reports the Malian is about to move to Greece. He said: "It is not true that Panathinaikos have made him an offer. "We are still waiting to see if Fulham offer him a new contract." Source: http://www.clubcall.com/fulham/diarra-still-waits-on-cottagers-decision-1623588.html
An interesting decision to be made by the club. Bidders is right, he was a major miss when he got so badly injured. His ability to pull the strings in midfield is brilliant and paired up with Parker could be a very effective partnership. It would allow Parker to be more mobile whilst Diarra could protect the back 4. Jol must rate him very highly if the club has left a spot open for his return in the squad. For his benefit and the club's we must hope he continues with his recovery and is in the shirt at the Cottage ASAP. However, his contract has to have a clause that bans him from playing international football, hard on him but a necessity for us.
Yeah he did. If I remember right he retired from international then made a come back and got injured.
I'm not sure that clubs are allowed to insist on a clause prohibiting the player from playing for their country. I know that clubs have to release players on designated international dates, though I'm not sure if that applies to friendlies as well as competitive games. The only exception is if the player had made himself unavailable. We would be entitled to put pressure on him to do that, even informally telling him that it's a condition of him being offered a contract, but I don't think it could be legally enforced if he changed his mind. I would imagine that Welsh fans would have something to say if Real had put a similar clause in Gareth Bale's contract.
Indeed captain, not sure I would be too happy if this happened to an English player. That said if Diarra wants a new contract then perhaps a gentlemans agreement could be made
If we pay him per game the financial risk is minimal and only on him. If he is given a contract then Fulham should not pick up another bill for his injuries..
This is the best compromise, I imagine. Honestly if Diarra wants to play for Mali again and risk his whole career, then that's his call. But another injury like that and we need to be done with him before he end up with a Dyer situation on our hands (pun intended). The flip side of that, of course, is that I think Diarra is worth waiting on for one last time. He's a quality player if he can get fit.
Jol said today that Diarra was in full training and about 75% fit. He also said that Diarra would play for the U21s on Monday night. Don't know enought about the 'rules' but I would have thought that to play him (as an over-age player) in the U21s, we must have re-registered him. That being the case and him being a free agent he would be eligible for the last place in the 25-man squad. Anybody know the ins and outs of this?
Regrettably it looks like curtains for Diarra: "Mahamadou Diarra's hopes of landing a new Fulham deal have been dealt a blow after he suffered a setback in training. The Mali midfielder hasn’t featured for the first team since last December due to a serious knee injury. Diarra’s contract expired in the summer, but he has been training at Motspur Park in a bid to prove his fitness to manager Martin Jol. The 32-year-old made a successful return from injury for Fulham's under-21s against Reading last month. However, Jol revealed Diarra has since broken down and is battling to regain his fitness. “We told him he needed to play three games to be 100 per cent fit and then we would give him a contract," the Craven Cottage chief explained. “But he had a setback, first his ankle and now his knee. The surgeon in Madrid thought it was a good idea to put him on a four-week rehab schedule. We’ll try to get him 100 per cent fit and then make a judgement. Diarra knows that if he’s fit he’s a very good player still." “But if he’s not then I can’t use him, so you can’t blame us for not paying people if they don’t play.” Source: http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/diarra-suffers-setback-bid-earn-6201630
Is he coming back soon? He would be the perfect person in the midfield 3 and would share halves with our other pensioner Kara. Its no coincidence that when he was injured our form slipped last season. Imo of course.
