I Know Arsenal Won't Buy Him, But Still I Will Suggest: Introduction to The Series

We all play FIFA Manager and imagine if we could do it for real. Well if I were Arsene Wenger, there are some players that I would like to buy, Arsenal probably won't, but I believe they would be useful additions. In this series I will look at those players and their pros and cons, and how they would fare for Arsenal.

Arsenal Community Leaders Maire Ofeire and Shyam Parthasarathi, and Eddy Hirono the creator of "The Three Transfers Road To Improvement" series would also be doing one article each in the series.

In this edition of the series, I will look at a really "strong" contender for Arsenal's defensive midfielder position.

Mahamadou Diarra: Fact-File

• Age: 28
• Position: Defensive Midfielder
  
• Current Club: Real Madrid
• National Team: Mali

Mahamadou Diarra is a hard-tackling defensive midfielder and is famed to be good at reading plays and breaking them. When at Lyon, he was compared by many to Claude Makelele and Patrick Vieira.

M. Diarra joined Real Madrid in 2006 for a fee of €26 Million, and since then was the first choice defensive midfielder for the Madrid based club, he has won the La Liga two times with Real Madrid.

Diarra usually doesn't get injured much, but he injured his knee in an international match against Chad in October 2008, he again injured that knee in November and had to undergo surgery and had to miss the remaining season.

Mahamadou Diarra to Arsenal: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• He is very good at reading and breaking plays.
  
• He has truck-loads of experience.
  
• He doesn't get injured often.
• He is also good in the air.
• More consistent than Song, Denilson, or Diaby.
• Real Madrid want to clear out excess players, and Mahamadou falls in that category after the arrival of Lass.

Cons:

• He hasn't played a match for eight months now.
• At €20 Million (his selling price), Real Madrid won't be making any discounts. And other teams are rumored to be interested in him.
  
• He will miss a few matches due to the African Cup of Nations.

Conclusion:

Mahamadou is everything Arsenal need—a strong, hard-tackling and experienced midfielder who is also good in the air, he would also get us a goal or two from set-pieces with his aerial abilities. And his experience would also benefit Song, Denilson, and Diaby in their development. And his cons aren't that convincing that I decide against signing him.

Note: Gooners you are free to write articles in this series, as long as you follow the format and don't forget to mention me in your article. Also you have to contact me first with your choice of player so that we don't see many articles for a same player.