Romance Gone Sour

I remember like it was yesterday when Leicester City won the League in 2016 with Riyad Mahrez N'Golo Kante and Jamie Vardy starring for the unlikely champions. The trio came to the limelight at such stage that almost every top outfit in Europe wanted snatch them away. Chelsea succeeded in taking the Frenchman to Stamford Bridge where he has since established himself as a household name and was also very instrumental to the Blues title winning campaign which earned him the PFA Player of the Year. We thought Kante was being ungrateful but it turned out perhaps, he made the right decision to leave then.

Bids definitely came for Mahrez and Vardy but both decided to stick with the Foxes and we all thought they were "loyal servants". Both starred in their maiden UEFA Champions League campaign and were still much sought after but still, Leicester were adamant on selling and then a turn of events saw them fall like a pack of cards which led to the sack of title winning Manager, Claudio Ranieri.

While of the two, Mahrez and Vardy, the Englishman hasn't really been in the transfer light, after his reported transfer to Arsenal failed in the summer of 2017, the Algerian has seen himself involved in two dramatic deadline days stunt.

It would be recalled that on the deadline day of the 2017 sumer transfer, Riyad Mahrez was given permission to leave the Algerian National team camp ahead of a World Cup qualifying match to seal a transfer to an unnamed team which eventually did not materialise. Few days ago, towards the deadline of the 2018 winter transfer window, he handed in a last ditch transfer request when Manchester City made an offer for him but Leicester refused to budge their asking price of about £95 million while City were unwilling to go beyond their £60-65 million offer which included an unnamed player in deal.

With these turn of events, I feel sad for Mahrez and a friend of his has come out to say Leicester City have broken their promise for the second time when they earlier said they'll allow the Algerian leave. He (Mahrez) was also said to have not reported to training on Thursday citing depression and is claimed to not be in the right frame of mind to play at the moment.

While it waits to be seen what would end this drama, I feel sometimes, players have leave when the ovation is high after putting in sterling performances for a small club and big names call for you. On etching in sure of is, (well, I could turn out wrong) that, Leicester City would not be able to get as much as their valuation of the Algerian in the region of £95 million when they finally offload their star man because one thing is certain he has lost interest in the Leicester dream just like Alexis Sanchez lost it with Arsenal and whether the Foxes like it or not he'd eventually leave, either by seeing out his contract (which might be too long to be unlikely) or he forces a move out which would not most likely be for a cut price.

While we wait to see how all these pans out, I feel for Riyad Mahrez and as much as I don't like players forcing moves from a club they were once loyal to, I wish the Algerian all the best. I wouldn't mind if Arsenal could snap him up 😉... Well, City look to be coming back for him in the summer.

#FingersCrossed