Despite Real Madrid being in a strong position to sign Portsmouth's Lassana Diarra, Manchester City boss Mark Hughes is refusing to concede defeat. "Diarra is a player I like. He's a good player but, at the moment, he's still a Portsmouth one," Hughes told The Sun.

"Things may develop for him. But the window isn't open at this moment so we'll just wait and see what happens. You can make of that what you want."