Former Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City stars are among the players who went on strike in an attempt to force a transfer.
With clubs simply wanting the best for themselves, several star names have tried to take matters into their own hands.
With Alexander Isak and Yoane Wissa both attempting to force a transfer elsewhere, we’ve picked 11 more players who attempted similar tactics to get their own moves.
Dimitar Berbatov
Sir Alex Ferguson claimed that Manchester United expected to sign Berbatov in the summer of 2008, which prompted an angry response from Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.
Levy played hardball, refusing to let the Bulgarian leave the club, prompting him to refuse to play in a London derby against Chelsea.
The Spurs supremo complained to the Premier League over United’s transfer dealings – a move which Sir Alex branded “embarrassing” – and eventually the striker moved for £30million on deadline day.
Diego Costa
“Hi Diego, I hope you are well. Thanks for the season we spent together. Good luck for the next year, but you are not in my plan.”
It was nice of Antonio Conte to let Costa know, but texting him that was a little bit brutal, no? Although we’d expect nothing less from a guy who has never used a carrot when a stick will do just fine.
Anyway, what ensued was a weird situation where Conte didn’t want Costa but also didn’t want to sell him.
The striker stayed in Brazil where he waited out a move to Atletico Madrid, which eventually went through in January 2018.
Dimitri Payet
One of the most exciting players in the Premier League back in 2016, Payet decided he wanted to return to Marseille and refused to play for West Ham, despite having recently received a fresh £100k a week contract.
He subsequently said he was bored of the defensive football Slaven Bilic’s side played. “You could say I was pissed off, yes,” he said. “I worked hard in every game without taking any pleasure.”
Payet got his move and remains a no-go topic of conversation in east London to this day.
Leonardo Ulloa
Six months after earning a Premier League winner’s medal, you’d think Ulloa would be pretty happy at Leicester. Think again.
In fact, the striker so desperately wanted a move to Sunderland that he refused to play for the Foxes.
It’s fair to say Claudio Ranieri did the Argentine a favour by not letting him leave, as Sunderland finished rock bottom and didn’t return to the Premier League for eight years.
Raheem Sterling
After refusing several new contract offers from Liverpool, it was blatantly obvious to everyone that Sterling wanted to leave and wanted to join Manchester City back in 2015.
And when his club told him ‘no’, the winger simply refused to go on their pre-season tour.
Sterling’s agent, Aidy Ward, did everything to make the transfer happen, however, even to the point of calling Jamie Carragher a knob to force the eventual move to the Etihad Stadium.
William Gallas
Back in 2006, with Chelsea’s stranglehold over English football seemingly complete, Gallas decided the Blues weren’t paying him enough money and that he wanted to leave.
The club refused.
Not content with just going on strike, the Frenchman apparently told Jose Mourinho that he would score own goals or make deliberate mistakes if he were selected.
It’s a shame Mourinho’s precise reaction wasn’t recorded for human posterity.
In the end, Gallas did Chelsea a massive favour as his sale to Arsenal saw Ashley Cole move in the other direction.
QUIZ: Can you name every player to play for Arsenal and Chelsea in the PL?
Red frames
Rojo refused to train at Sporting Lisbon when he tried to force through a move to Manchester United in 2014, bizarrely prompting Juan Sebastian Veron to get involved.
“Veron was like a strict father to me, scolding me,” Rojo recalled.
“He called me one day when I had refused to train with Sporting and said, ‘Do not be stubborn. If Manchester United wants a player then they will not let you escape.’”
Even after joining United, he had to wait for his debut after initially being refused a work permit due to an outstanding criminal charge in Argentina following a dispute with a neighbour in 2010.
Happily, Rojo played with the same unhinged lunacy for much of his time at Old Trafford.
Clint Dempsey
Having been a mainstay of the side and one of the best players at Fulham for several years, Dempsey decided he wanted to leave the club in 2012 – much to the anger of manager Martin Jol.
A website owned by the same company which owns Liverpool published a story saying he had signed for the Anfield club, even though Jol said they hadn’t even put a bid in for him.
He ended up moving to Tottenham on deadline day.
Sebastien Squillaci
Squillaci refused to turn out for Sevilla in their Champions League qualifier against Braga back in 2010.
Sadly, he either neglected to tell the coach, or Antonio Alvarez didn’t believe him, given the defender was named in the starting XI.
“I knew if I played against Braga then I would not have been able to play for Arsenal in the Champions League,” admitted an unrepentant Squillaci.
He got his move, much to the regret of Arsenal fans as Squillaci was wretched for the Gunners.
The Frenchman made only one Premier League appearance throughout the final two years of his three-year £50k-a-week deal.
Carlos Tevez
Tevez had already tried to leave City once before he refused to come off the bench during a Champions League clash at Bayern Munich in September 2011.
The club backed Roberto Mancini, who claimed Tevez “wanted out of City”, while the player decided he’d had enough and legged it back to Argentina upon being suspended and fined.
While he was away, agent Kia Joorabchian attempted to negotiate a move to AC Milan.
But, when they refused to meet City’s £25million asking price, Tevez was forced to return to Manchester.
The striker returned to Mancini’s squad in March, just in time to score four goals as City pipped United to the Premier League title.
Pierre van Hooijdonk
Van Hooijdonk first wanted to leave Nottingham Forest in December 1997 when PSV Eindhoven were interested.
But Dave Bassett offered a compromise of being allowed at the end of the season as the Dutch striker fired Forest back into the Premier League.
But with Newcastle said to be willing to pay £7million, Bassett declared he would only consider an offer of £10million.
“But £10m in 1997 was ridiculous,” the striker has since said. “That’s like trying to sell a cappuccino for £25 – it’s for sale, but nobody will touch it.”
So van Hooijdonk returned to the Netherlands and refused to come back, a move which left Bassett ‘disgusted’.
Van Hooijdonk was no fan of Bassett either, despite the manager guiding Forest back to the top flight.
“People say we became champions, but so what? If you were to change all the managers in the league for cats, at the end of the season there will still be one champion and three will get relegated.
“Does that mean the cat who is champion is fantastic?”
Almost too Dutch to function.
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