I heard from Sky Sports that Mohamed Diamé is in London having talks with a host of clubs including Arsenal, so what is everyone's thoughts about this. I personally think that he is a good player and would be a decent signing for us if any of the reports are true. This will however probably mean that the Defensive midfield position would be sorted out which means that M'villa would not be joining us. Diamé is still only 24 and has performed very well for Wigan, its interesting to note that Arsenal and Real Madrid were apparently interested in him before until they discovered a potential issue with his heart (similar to Muamba) which unfortunately put many of the bigger clubs off him. So would anyone be happy if he came to us or is this another potential bargain buy mistake from Wenger?
Don't know much about him so I asked my Wigan supporting mate who for his sins owns a season ticket with the latics. He says he's cack. Occasionally running to average on a good day. I'll go with his opinion on him and say no thanks. Are we that desperate for a defensive midfielder? There have to be better options, even if it means paying for them (finally).
Fair enough He would be a decent addition as a squad player I dont think he would be a first team player but your right we need to start paying for quality instead of getting cheap players who end up being average at best.
He is probably a perfectly decent player and would do a job but, like Kyle said, I think it sends out a poor message regarding our ambitions. We're 2 or 3 players off having an incredibly competitive first team squad and probably about 5 off having an all round title challenging squad if we deal with our bench too. To convince the doubters you need to be chasing the Podolski's and M'Vila's of this world and not the Kalou's and Diame's. IMO anyway. Still have a horrible feeling we'll sign Kalou
Apparently he has very high wage demands which is jeopardizing his chance to come to Arsenal, I would sign Benny though as he has been very good for us this season
A Wigan fan I know said that Diame is quality, he's impressed me whenever I've seen him also. Powerful player capable of making driving runs from deep and also has a hammer of a shot on him. I'd like to have him at Newcastle, the prospect of him and Tiote shoring up the midfield with Cabaye in front is quite a nice one. Think clubs are wary of him because he has a heart condition that makes him prone to the 'sudden death syndrome' we unfortunately see with some players when they keel over during a match seemingly at random.
I think the balance Newcastle have at the moment is very good, you play very good attacking football and think you would prosper even more if you could get another decent midfielder who can chip in with the odd assist (with your attacking force you would be even more dangerous). Diame reminds me of Yaya Toure all-be-it not nearly as good as he is a powerful runner as you mentioned but I haven't seen enough of him to truly rate him.
We have better options available. I would rather any other dm we have been linked with or anyone of frimpong or coquelin thiugh i do think diame is under rated.
Frimpong is a beast I hope he can get over his injuries because he is a proper DM and just what we need. Coq too, whilst not the same type of player is really mobile in midfield, he reminds a bit of Flamini.
