Welcome to West Ham, Alou Diarra

[WestHamByTheSea]

See straight away I like him, just because he once briefly upset that twat Crouch.

From the little I've seen of him he looks like a proper player, and no matter how strong/top-heavy you are in a specific area it's always good to snap up quality when you can. It does raise a few questions though - Diame, Noble, Diarra... looks like 2 from 3 all of whom will expect a starting berth; ok it's a squad game but the fees for Diame and Diarra would suggest first teamer, and what of the lack of urgency re. Nobes new contract?

Having watched Diame in the Olympics, he looks like a proper passer of the ball as well as solid defensively; might suggest he'd potentially now pip Nobes with Diarra doing the 'water carrier' role. Happy to be corrected on this by anyone who's watched either player regularly.

Ideally it will just mean we have plenty of quality and solidity in the middle of the park - hopefully it really is that simple! Moved on from Kovac, that's for sure...

[upton o'good]

Great signing...

And we can adapt Twsit & Shout for him:

Alou Baby now,
Twist and shout

[window74]

Well well well, what a cracking signing! 2 Million for a French international midfielder, that's peanuts! I would not want to be coming up against our midfield I know that. Now if we can just bring in a few more players we will have a cracking squad!

[damiant]

am happy with this signing, he looks like he is capable of performing in the PL, lets hope he does

[fjthegrey]

Alou aime à visiter la boulangerie et de la bibliothèque.

[giantsteps]

Errrr, we are in agreement HE IS NOT LASS DIARRA, right?

Good signing, not sure how you could say a 'brilliant' signing at 31 and been knocking round on loan for a few years, spent 2 years at Liverpool and didn't manage to break into the first team. But I think he will good for us, my only qualm is with him, Diame and Nolan we're looking like a brick sh*thouse in midfield. I take it Maiga & Vaz will play the wings which will offer us some width but it looks like its shaping up to be another season of the dreaded 4-5-1 system.

[indiehammer]

Big Sam talking about Alou on WHUTV-

'his fitness it outstanding, this lads availible to play every week'

I think we can safely say that he's NOT going to sit on the bench.

With how good Diame looked last night, i'm very excited to see these two link up. It will free Nolan up to be more of a second striker too.

[bobd_uk]

my only qualm is with him, Diame and Nolan we're looking like a brick sh*thouse in midfield.

That's a qualm? I'll take that above the likes of Watford and Doncaster strolling through a midfield of O'Neil, Noble and Taylor every day. You'll notice that our bad run last season coincided with the loss of Diop.

[Faubert's Boot]

Errrr, we are in agreement HE IS NOT LASS DIARRA, right?

Good signing, not sure how you could say a 'brilliant' signing at 31 and been knocking round on loan for a few years, spent 2 years at Liverpool and didn't manage to break into the first team. But I think he will good for us, my only qualm is with him, Diame and Nolan we're looking like a brick sh*thouse in midfield.

He signed for liverpool ten years ago and was on loan for 3, so he left when he was 24......

He is now 31 and has captained france, gained 44 caps for france and played for 3 of the top french teams. Hes won the french league twice and the french cup twice. He also played in the 2006 world cup final.

Now, i don't know about you, but for a club that's just been promoted from the Championship via the play offs i would say that is a brilliant signing....

[SiamHammer]

This^

well put

[JesusShoes]

I'll take him!

[Mike Check]

Great great signing. That is all...

[giantsteps]

He signed for liverpool ten years ago and was on loan for 3, so he left when he was 24......

He is now 31 and has captained france, gained 44 caps for france and played for 3 of the top french teams. Hes won the french league twice and the french cup twice. He also played in the 2006 world cup final.

Now, i don't know about you, but for a club that's just been promoted from the Championship via the play offs i would say that is a brilliant signing....

As I said before, good signing (in my opinion)

And Allardyce has a great knack of signing world class players at the twilight of their career. I.e Ivan Campo,
Djorkaeff, Jay Jay Okocha, Salgado etc.

If we'd of signed him a few years back I perhaps would of agreed a 'brilliant' coup. But as I said before, I think he will be good for us for next season or two

[MikeNewell'sOldBoys]

I don't get your point. Ivan Campo turned out to be a great signing for Bolton. We've signed a few handed players past their 30th birthday over the years..

Signings like this will do a lot to convince players to sign for us. The profile of our club in France will be massively increased with the signings of Diarra and Maiga.

We've gone from signings the captains of Birmingham and West Brom to the captain of bloody France.

[giantsteps]

I'm not making a point. Just stating that I think he's a good signing, but not brilliant. This is only my opinion of course.

Looking forward to seeing him turn out in the claret & blue. Hopefully he'll go straight into the team for the Villa game

[stubbsy07]

Very negative of me but if he was that good he wouldn't be playing for us!

[giantsteps]

In other transfer related news:

Twitter 'rumour' that Jarvis has agreed terms with us

Only a rumour though

[MikeNewell'sOldBoys]

I'm not making a point. Just stating that I think he's a good signing, but not brilliant. This is only my opinion of course.

Looking forward to seeing him turn out in the claret & blue. Hopefully he'll go straight into the team for the Villa game

You were putting Diarra in the same bracket as Djorkaeff, Campo etc. weren't you? I was saying that age shouldn't be the defining factor in how good a signing is. Sherringham was a great signing, Pearce was a great signing, Pirlo was seen to be way past his best when AC Milan released him but he was a great signing for Juve.

[chunkay]

Can't believe we've got through four pages without this suggestion:

Alou Diarra, you are the love of my life
Alou Diarra, I'd let you shag my wife
Alou Diarra, I wanna grow a beard tooo.....

[saludo de carlitos]

Is there any highlight videos, can't seem to find a lot of him.