Biggest Losers of the EPL transfers deadline day

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SteemSports Presenter: @feekayo

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SteemSports Editor: @writingamigo

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The transfer window slammed shut in most of Europe yesterday to much fanfare. To those unfamiliar with football and it's shenanigans, transfer deadline day is football's almost-equivalent to draft day in the NBA & NFL. The big difference is that here European teams have about 3 months to draft in players for the new season.

So what is the big fuss about deadline day you might ask? For various reasons, clubs leave difficult deals to be done on the final day, virtually playing a game of chicken with each other on differences in valuation of their prized assets and certain add-ons on transfers. For these reasons many deals go over the wire and remain pending till the very last seconds of the transfer window. Now to the worst losers on the day.

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Riyadh Mahrez

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It was a day to forget for the fleet footed Algerian forward. He had made the decision last year to be loyal and stay on at Leicester after their unprecedented title win during which he won many plaudits for his exploits with the foxes.

But things didn't go exactly according to plan in the following season as Leicester surpassed Chelsea in producing what was the worst title defense in living memory, finishing 12th on the log. So unsurprisingly, this time around he was desperate to leave and has now apparently failed to do so.

He left the Algerian squad early yesterday morning and was being mooted to be traveling to Barcelona for a medical. This claim that was soon refuted by Barça, he was then reportedly seen at Cobham; Chelsea FC's training facility, but somehow a move never materialized in what must have been a very frustrating day for Mahrez.

All hope is not lost for him though as a move to Spain can still materialize today, but it remains to be seen if any top side is committed to bringing him in.

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Everton FC & Ross Barkley

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Everton FC missed out on a windfall of 35 million pounds when Ross Barkley walked out of Cobham yesterday after a successful medical. Meaning that the English Man will depart on a free transfer next summer, The 23-year-old has refused to sign a new contract at the Merseysiders and has burnt many bridges in doing so. Everton has since replaced him with a much better player, and there is definitely no space for him at Goodison Park.

So why exactly did he walk out on Chelsea? Well, it is very difficult to ascertain since he had agreed to contract terms and everything before his medical. What changed? Did he not believe he would not be more than a squad player at the Champions? Or did he fancy a move to spurs? Or did he get cold feet about leaving his boyhood club?

We won't get to know until either party tell us. Either way, it was a hot headed poor decision where he succeeded in wasting Chelsea's time, losing his club a fortune and virtually guaranteeing a year without football for himself in a world cup year.

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Arsenal FC and Alexis Sanchez

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Many words can be used to describe Arsenal's transfer window, and none of them are good words. Terrible, atrocious, underwhelming and sad. For a team that finished out of the top four in what has been like forever, Arsenal fans were hoping for some sort of response from management. At least some statement of intent and commitment towards restoring the club to its long lost glory. What has followed has been absolutely laughable.

Arsenal ended up signing Kolasnic for free, and Lacazzete for 52 million pounds, initially that was impressive but what followed has been dismal. Instead of adding to a squad low on the quality they found themselves losing players.

Arsenal was in an untenable situation heading into the final hours of the transfer window. The previous day, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain had rebelled against Arsenal's contract overtures and had won, forcing Arsenal into selling him for a healthy 35 million pounds deal to rivals Liverpool. Alexis Sanchez who was also in the same boat as Chamberlain prior to the move was also looking to swim out of what is continuously looking like a sinking Arsenal ship.

Manchester City looked to be his saviour late on, when they made a 60 million pounds bid for the 29-year-old, a bid which Arsenal reportedly accepted only on the condition that they secure a replacement in the form of Monaco's Thomas Lemar who was at that moment with the French National team preparing to take on the Oranje of Netherlands. Which meant that even though Monaco was willing to accept the 93 million pounds mooted as being offered for Lemar, the logistics were never really in place for the move to take place.

The night ended with a disgruntled Alexis bound to leave Arsenal for free next season with Arsenal missing out on a 60 million pounds windfall.

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Chelsea FC and Antonio Conte

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This was supposed to be very easy. Chelsea has won the premier league two times in the past 3 years, they have a competitive starting 11 that can stand their own against Europe's top sides. However, over the years, Chelsea have found themselves with a revolving door in the player department. A lot of players who made their names defending the Chelsea badge have gone for a plethora of reasons including age and money.

So Chelsea found themselves on deadline day with a squad of 16 players, A number too small to compete on four fronts this season. The board had done a great job securing players like Rudiger, Bakayoko, and Morata early into the transfer window, but had a harder time securing squad players for rotation.

Buying squad players should not exactly be so difficult! But Chelsea made it very difficult for themselves by targeting only English players. And even though they were able to secure deals with Arsenal and Everton for contract labels Oxlade Chamberlain & Ross Barkley and also Swansea forward Fernando Llorente. They found themselves being rejected by all of them at the final hurdle.

They had to leave it late to secure Dany Drinkwater and Davide Zappacosta, and even though depth has been added both the Chelsea board and Antonio Conte will be scratching their heads on why it was so hard and how to deal with Chelsea no longer having the X Factor of financial muscle in relation to other top clubs in a transfer window they had always found easy to dominate.

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