Lassana Diarra has returned to training after the ankle injury that has sidelined him since the middle of last month but he will not be risked in tonight's final Uefa Cup group tie against Heerenveen. The question for Portsmouth supporters, however, is whether they will see the midfielder in their colours again.
The January transfer window is approaching and the race for Diarra's signature is on. Real Madrid believe that they are close to a deal for the 23-year-old, who inserted a clause into his contract upon joining Portsmouth last January that would enable him to move on "if a really big club wants me".
Manchester City believe that Diarra can be theirs for £18m but the player is understood to favour Real, although the fact that the Spaniards' offer is roughly half that of City's is problematic to Portsmouth. Conspiracy theorists, meanwhile, wonder whether Portsmouth, deep in debt and up for sale, can risk playing Diarra in any of their upcoming three Christmas fixtures — against Bolton, West Ham and Arsenal — for fear of him picking up an injury that would scupper a lucrative transfer.
The Heerenveen game is sold out after Portsmouth told supporters that to get a ticket for last month's glamour tie against Milan at Fratton Park, they also had to commit to the visit of the Dutch club. The two-match packages were heavily discounted yet with neither Portsmouth nor Heerenveen in contention to qualify from Group E, after failing to win any of their games, the atmosphere may well fall flat.
Portsmouth have enjoyed their first taste of European competition and can only wonder what might have been had they held on to their 2–0 lead against Milan last month, instead of drawing 2–2, and not made defensive errors in the 3–2 defeat at Wolfsburg. "We want to be in the right frame of mind for Bolton on Saturday and set that game up with a good result," said their assistant manager, John Metgod.
Portsmouth (4-4-2): Ashdown; Pamarot, Distin, Hreidarsson, Wilson; Mvuemba, Davis, Hughes, Kranjcar; Kanu, Defoe.
Heerenveen (4-3-3): Steppe; Breuer, Dingsdag, Nielsen, Popov; Vayrynen, Svec, Grindheim; Beerens, Sibon, Pranjic.
Referee R Havrilla (Svk).
