Diarra, or Lass as he is now known, saw his reputation soar very early in his career thanks to a number of assured performances in Le Havre's midfield which saw him compared to Claude Makelele, who was proving himself instrumental in Chelsea's midfield. Chelsea swooped in and picked up the youngster, hoping that he would one day fulfill his destiny and one day take over the defensive midfield role which Makelele had locked down so successfully it was subsequently named after him. Diarra was still young at the time and was given limited opportunities in the first team, most of them coming off the bench. While Chelsea and Mourinho saw this as a gradual learning process, Diarra was less impressed at his manager's seeming refusal to share his firm belief that he was already good enough for the first team. Nevertheless, he was named Young Player Of The Year in 05/06 and saw more extensive playtime in his sophomore season, albeit most often as a right-back when a spate of injuries took their toll on the club's defensive options. Diarra still wasn't happy and with his contract about to expire, Chelsea sold him to Arsenal in 2007, citing a desire to work under Arsene Wenger, who had an excellent reputation for bringing youth prospects into his first team. Diarra's impatience got the better of him once again at Arsenal, leading to him being sold on to Portsmouth and then, incredibly, Real Madrid, where he finally started to look worthy of his early accolades. Mourinho's arrival at the Bernabeu signalled the end of his career there and he was shipped off to the newly flush Anzhi in Russia. Diarra was another player who didn't cost Chelsea much other than time, but his refusal to accept the need for time to convert potential into existing ability meant he never became the world beater expected of him.
28-year old English writer with a borderline obsessive passion for films, videogames, Chelsea FC, incomprehensible words and indefensible puns. Follow me on Twitter if you like infrequent outbursts of absolute drivel.
