What Should We Do With Alou?

The news was confirmed a few days back that West Ham midfielder Alou Diarra is likely to miss the entire season due to a torn knee ligament. West Ham manager Sam Allardyce descried the injury as a 'cruel blow to the side' and with Diarra just returning from a loan spell with Rennes, it was predicted that he would play a big part in West Ham's season.

In recent years the hammers have been unlucky with key players suffering injuries and we hoped to avoid this pattern this season, pre-season went well and things looked good going into the new season but Diarra joins Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing and Joe Cole on the dreaded injury list.

With it being predicted that Diarra was likely to leave West Ham after publicly criticising the club after no significant playing time, he and Big Sam made up and things looked back on track. With this being the second long term injury Alou has suffered since joining West Ham from Marseille last summer, what should West Ham do with him?

He's a player with much experience but the fans are still not sure on how influential he could have been to the side. With our wage bill being high should we look into offering him a pay-off or would he ask for too much?

At 32 Diarra isn't getting any younger and these injuries will hinder any progress he hopes to make with the squad, by the time he properly starts playing again he'll be 33, so its safe to assume that his best days are behind him. It's a bitter blow for both player and club but I feel that letting Diarra go would be the best thing, he didn't do enough to command a first team spot anyway and was seen as more of a cover option so letting him go wouldn't be disastrous.

What do you think would be the best outcome with Alou Diarra?