Lassana Diarra to Real Madrid: What It Means For Portsmouth

The news in all of the media outlets today is that Lassana Diarra, one of the finest midfielders to ever wear the blue of Portsmouth, will be leaving the club for Spanish giants Real Madrid at the start of the January transfer window.

Diarra, who had previous stints at both Chelsea and Arsenal, has been an integral part of the Portsmouth squad since joining in January of 2008, and played a crucial role in our FA Cup win last season.

Teamtalk.com is reporting that the fee Real Madrid have agreed upon could be up to £24 million, which will be a great bit of business for a Portsmouth side who paid only £5 million for Diarra's services less than a year ago.

But what does this deal mean for Portsmouth? Although Diarra has been out with injury for a number of weeks, will he be missed?

He most certainly will be. How important his impact on Pompey this season has been slightly difficult to prove statistically, however, as the departure of former manager Harry Redknapp occurred at almost the same time Diarra was sidelined with injury.

Diarra has missed matches against Hull, Blackburn, West Brom, and last week's match against Newcastle.

In those fixtures, we only managed to pick up a total of four points, and had some of our worst performances of the season.

More importantly, however, was Diarra's absences against Braga, AC Milan, and Wolfsburg in the UEFA Cup. Had he been available for those matches, I am confident in saying we would have been able to gain some of the confidence and consistency our team has needed.

Would we have won all of those games? Certainly not. But I believe that we would still have been in for a shout at qualifying out of the group.

In the games he has played in during this season, Diarra has been absolutely exceptional, particularly in the Community Shield game against Manchester United. Even when Redknapp was still around and the team were not performing particularly well, Diarra was always the bright spot in the side.

Still, the departure of Diarra was not entirely unexpected. Almost all Portsmouth supporters knew that we weren't going to be able to hold on to our midfield master for very long, and we have all been fearing his departure during this window.

There are, however, several positives to take from this entire experience.

First, the transfer fee that is being quoted is an absolutely incredible sum, and actually worthy of a player of Diarra's quality. Club owner Sacha Gaydamak and Chief Executive Peter Storrie have made sure that Diarra wasn't allowed to leave for the measly £9 million originally being tossed around.

If Diarra was allowed to leave for that price, we would have known that there were  problems with the club. Instead, we are getting a substantial fee with the club claiming that they have "already identified possible replacements".

Second, Portsmouth have now proven that we are capable of signing the highest quality players (playing at their prime, no less!), and that the players plying their trade on the south coast are capable of playing in Europe's most elite clubs.

Within six months, we will have two former players walk into the lineups of two of the best sides in Europe with Diarra's transfer and Sulley Muntari's transfer to Inter Milan.

And with the club not standing in the way of Diarra nor Muntari's move, both players are leaving with not only FA Cup winners medals, but also with incredibly positive experiences.

Hopefully, all of that will be seen by other young players who will look at Portsmouth as not simply a "stepping stone" to greater things, but also has a club that can match talented ambition.

While the deal for Diarra isn't complete quite yet, I am certain that it will be wrapped up within the next two or three days. With Diarra reportedly not at the game against Heerenveen as he is undergoing a medical in Madrid.

I wish you all of the best in the future, Diarra, and take pride in knowing that we had one of the finest young talents in Europe playing on our side.