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Mind your shins, Diakite is back Wednesday, 27th Jun 2012 15:46 by LFW
QPR have completed their fourth summer signing, bringing back Mali international Samba Diakite on a four year permanent deal following last season’s successful loan.
Facts
Diakite is a 23-year-old central midfielder, born in Montfermeil in France of Malian descent. He played for Le Bourget and Torcy in his youth career before joining Nancy in 2007, signing his first professional contract in 2009 and making his professional debut in a cup match in January 2010.
He made 15 appearances for Nancy last season before joining QPR on a half season loan in January. He was sent off within 33 minutes on his debut v Fulham after a kamikaze display of gratuitous violence but went on to make eight further appearances, win three LFW Man of the Match awards and and average a rating of 6.77 (6.74 interactive). He scored his first QPR goal in the 2-1 home win against Arsenal.
Diakite is already famed in W12 for his poor discipline. He was booked seven times in nine appearances for QPR last season, and sent off once. He was booked three times while on duty for Mali and five times at Nancy leaving an intimidating total of 15 yellows and a red in 29 appearances last season.
He has signed a four year contract at Loftus Road for a fee in the region of £3.5m.
Reaction
"Samba was a real find for us in January, so we're delighted he's joined us permanently. He's a very accomplished footballer and he's made to measure for the Premier League. He's got good pace, strength and ability on the ball and he's going to be a great asset for us going forward. There's still so much more to come from him.” -Mark Hughes
“It's a dream come true to sign this contract. I loved my time here on loan and I couldn't be happier to join QPR on a permanent deal. It's a fantastic club to play for and the owners have great plans for the future - I am just delighted to be part of it.” -Samba Diakite
This is one of the most exciting signings in recent times, and i feel that in Diakite we have potentially one of the best box to box midfielders in the country. Although many will claim to have been a fan from day one, i distinctly remember being extremely impressed by him even when he was sent off against Fulham. The idea of him being a young Veria is too soon, but i for one believe he has the attributes to be an outstanding player for us. Him and Ale in the centre next year with Taarabt getting a full pre season under his belt is just what we need, throw a winger into the mix and maybe a left back and it's looks very promising for us next season. LOTR
The prospect of Faurlin and Diakite playing together is mouthwatering - Diakite's pace, power and dynamism on the ball combined with Faurlin's range of passing and playmaking is on paper a superb combo. Our own version of Cabaye and Tiote who were so good for Newcastle last season. AdHoc
Opinion
This is a terrific signing.
At the moment all Diakite has is potential, and it's not just Leon Jeanne who can tell you how worthless that can turn out to be if wasted. He's raw in a number of areas of his game, most obviously his discipline which, if left to continue at his current rate, would see him pass 20 yellow cards in the Premiership next season which would result in ten matches suspended over the course of the campaign for card accumulation.
He can, as we saw against Swansea at home when he interrupted a serene 3-0 win with a waist high challenge that almost pulled Leon Britton's leg out of the hip socket, produce a dreadful tackle from nowhere and look absolutely amazed when it is punished. However it's worth remembering that Swansea did absolutely nothing from the resulting free kick deep in their own half – prior to his arrival West Brom launched a similar counter attack where Ale Faurlin passed up an opportunity to foul a man in the same way and they stormed all the way down to the School End and equalised.
Diakite not only brings a pragmatic steal to the QPR midfield that wouldn't be there without him, he also brings a leggy, athletic energy that wasn't there previously either. He's a big, strong, quick boy who can comfortably compete box to box and the difference in our midfield when he plays compared to when he doesn't is obvious. As an added bonus, he's also an adept dribbler of the football, with immaculate ball control not often found in players of his type. I hesitate to compare him to Patrick Vieira, but you get what I'm saying.
In a departure from our transfer policy so far this summer he's also young. What we've done here is pick up a 23-year-old full international midfielder who played exceptionally well in the Premier League last season for £3.5m. The fact that's he's stark raving mad, rolling his shorts into his crotch and trying to kill passing Fulham players, is neither here nor there when you think about it like that.
Having signed Chris Samba and Moussa Dembele as cheap, unknowns for Blackburn and Fulham and helped to create sought after Premiership players out of them it could well be that Mark Hughes has repeated the trick here in QPR's favour. A tremendously exciting signing.
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Great news. Now this is the kind of "nasty" player we need, where there is actually a high level of skill to complement the grit. Now if he can just learn to scythe down the opposition a bit more discreetly :)
Thirlled about this. Hughes' ability to bring in raw gems at good prices is one of the main reasons I backed his appointment well before he joined.
I do want to lay one thing to rest though. Dembele can only be considered 'unknown' if you don't have an interest in football outside of England. He was a well establihsed and well regarded Belgian international before he joined Fulham.
Fantastic news. The one signing I/most/we all wanted. Makes the game look easy, glides past players and can also finish as we saw against Arsenal. Great business by Hughes and the the sort of player who will improve rapidly under his guidance.
Great stuff, although your tendency to describe grown men barely a few years younger than yourself as 'boys' is weirding me out a little. I'm 36 and footballers of 23 look 10 years older than I do.
Great signing. Really looking forward to the new season and watching Samba "mad man" Diakite. Must admit i was totally unimpressed the first couple of games but ive now seen what he brings other then maiming the opposition(not a bad thing sometimes).
So TacticalR or anyone,just how do you stick an accent on the last letter of his surname then? If you look above you'll see that even noted 26 year-old boy genius Clive Whittingham doesn't know how to.
This is brilliant new and a real show of intent coupled with sound judgement. IMO Samba is a match winner.
I remember emailing a mate, after the Fulham game, that he looked a decent player; just a shame he was clearly a lunatic. Well welcome to the Hoops asylum Samba, as the song goes "(we) will fix you".
If I wasn't already excited by next season, I certainly am now.
if faulin can come back from injury and play as before ,well what a midfeild pairing he and samba will make!! for me all we need is a fast right back and left wing,all positioned covered plus a top 10 finish, (maybe a young promising striker to learn of our aging ones)
A brilliant signing for the R's. I am not concerned over our midfield now or attacking options, but remain somewhat worried about our back four. Could do with another couple of decent signings there and i think we should be in for a much better season. Come on you R's!
Really need to get to the bottom of this shorts business - it's worrying me. And his favourite cheese, of course. Can one of you youngsters twitter him about it?
Really need to get to the bottom of this shorts business - it's worrying me. And his favourite cheese, of course. Can one of you youngsters twitter him about it?
Haven't been as excited about a signing in a long time. Can't help you isawqpratwcity with your queries but like yourself would love to know some answers. Anyway who cares we've got our man.
This is nice surprise! been away and did not realise we had completed signing, summary very funny Clive! yes he is a nutter, but a nutter with a bit of class, surprised Arsene Winger passed, most of his mid-field, (apart from Song) have no bottle, and they have never replaced Viera, (as mentioned).
Love the comment "killing passing Fulham players".
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