Could this summer have been more of a mess for Alexander Isak and Newcastle United? It’s hard to imagine how.
Isak has taken a wrecking ball to his relationship with the club by refusing to train with his team-mates and insisting that Newcastle have broken promises as he tries to force through a move to Liverpool.
The Magpies, meanwhile, have doubled down on their determination to keep hold of Isak – his inflammatory statement seems only to have strengthened their resolve.
It’s not our first rodeo with this scenario. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, footballers sometimes make pretty good prima donnas. Isak isn’t the first to spit out his dummy and he won’t be the last.
One of the players on this list threatened to score an own goal if his club fielded him again. In the social media age, we also get the incredibly petty and insolent act of deleting a club off one’s social media. That one sound familiar, Yoane Wissa?
Without further ado, here are players who have downed tools to try and force through a move – and how it has worked out for them.
Alexander Isak isn’t the first footballer to go on strike and he won’t be the last
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Luka Modric (Tottenham to Chelsea/Real Madrid)
He’s the midfield grandmaster who broke the hegemony of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the avuncular veteran who sets a shining example – but Luka Modric also has a dark side.
For two summers in a row, the Croatian tried to force through a move from Spurs. In 2011, he handed in a transfer request after Daniel Levy snubbed a bid from Chelsea.
Modric claimed that Levy threatened to stick him on the bench and broke a gentleman’s agreement to sell him to a bigger club in an interview with Croatian outlet Sportske Novosti.
Well, it worked out in the end. The next summer, Real Madrid came calling and the whole house shook.
Modric skipped training and missed Tottenham’s pre-season tour of the United States. Spurs fined him £80,000 but that wasn’t going to make him budge.
That August, Madrid got their hands on Modric for around £30million. A steal considering what he went on to do – even though Spanish newspaper Marca dubbed it the worst signing of the season at the time.
He has since expressed regret at how things ended at White Hart Lane.
Luka Modric tried to force through a move from Tottenham for two summers in a row – and eventually got his wish, going to Real Madrid in 2012
Luis Suarez (Liverpool to Arsenal/Barcelona)
It’s almost unthinkable now, but there was a time when a Liverpool player was irate at not being allowed to join Arsenal. That man was Luis Suarez.
Cast yourselves back to the summer of 2013. Liverpool had just finished seventh under Brendan Rodgers. Arsenal were about to embark on their 16th consecutive Champions League campaign under Arsene Wenger.
And so Suarez wanted out. The Uruguayan claimed that Liverpool had vowed to let him leave if they failed to qualify for Europe’s top table.
Arsenal came in with an insulting bid of £40m and a quid – one pound more than his apparent release clause. Liverpool owner John W Henry puffed an iconic response on Twitter: ‘What do you think they’re smoking over there at Emirates?’
Up stepped Stevie G. Who else? Gerrard took the talisman to one side and convinced him to stay.
As Suarez recalled: ‘Steven tells me “I promise that if you stay this year you’re going to take off and next year you’ll go to Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid or whichever one you want, but stay this year because you won’t be better off at Arsenal.”
‘His words convinced me in that moment. They came from a person who cared for me, who wanted my well-being, who saw me suffer during training and saw me sad. They were words from a true captain that had an impact in that moment and helped me a lot.’
And true it proved. In July 2014, Barcelona signed Suarez for £75m and, after he had seen off a four-month ban for biting Iaaly’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup, Suarez helped them win the Treble that season under Luis Enrique.
Steven Gerrard persuaded Luis Suarez to stay at Liverpool amid interest from Arsenal, but a year later he joined Barcelona (in 2014)
Dimitri Payet (West Ham to Marseille)
Ah, what could have been. Dimitri Payet and the Premier League, such unfinished business. That free-kick against Crystal Palace was simply exquisite.
West Ham fans were in dreamland having a player like Payet and yet it was all torn away inside 18 months.
Payet joined the Hammers in June 2015 and halfway through his debut season penned a fresh five-and-a-half year deal the following February. He was supposed to be there until 2021!
But things suddenly changed in January 2017. Payet refused to train or play, telling Slaven Bilic that he wanted to leave. Bilic said he felt ‘angry’ and ‘let down’ and reiterated the club’s desire to hang on to him.
Hang on they did not. Marseille, Payet’s previous club, came in with £25m and West Ham decided to let him go for the sake of squad unity.
‘I know how to be a d***head, it is one of my specialities,’ he later told French football magazine So Foot.
‘It’s a little game. When I want to p*** everyone off, I do it.
‘My managers understood that: when I sulk, they talk to me. It’s a way for me to be heard. Those who know me play along, and, in the end, it goes well.’
Dimitri Payet demanded to suddenly leave West Ham for Marseille in 2017 – and later admitted he had been a ‘d***head’ to force through the move
William Gallas (Chelsea to Arsenal)
This saga is one of the most explosive of all.
In the summer of 2006, Gallas refused to sign a new deal with Chelsea as he desired a move to either Juventus or AC Milan.
With a year left to go on his deal, the west London club had slapped down an extension offer worth £70,000 per week, but he wanted the sweet six figures.
On deadline day, Gallas eventually got a move across town to Arsenal – but that was only the beginning.
Chelsea felt they needed to explain the exit to supporters, so released a sensational statement, authorised by manager Jose Mourinho, alleging that Gallas had threatened to score an own goal if he had been sleected in the opening-day clash against Manchester City. They also said he had refused to play in the FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool in the previous season.
Gallas hit back: ‘I am surprised and shocked by these claims. I never said I would score own goals if I had to play for Chelsea again. I was firm about my wanting to leave, that is true, and I will explain in due time why I wanted to.
‘But I never went that far. But if people want to hide behind false accusations in order to give a reason for why I left so they can calm down the club’s supporters then they can.
‘All this is very, very petty on behalf of Chelsea. But at the same time, coming on behalf of its new leaders, that does not surprise me. Even if Chelsea has much money, its new directors lack class.’
Guess that made for an awkward reunion…
Chelsea claimed William Gallas threatened to score an own goal before he joined Arsenal in 2006, though he denies this
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool to Chelsea)
Looking back, it doesn’t feel right that Steven Gerrard wasn’t a one-club man. After all, he finished his career with LA Galaxy. But at least it wasn’t Chelsea.
Gerrard, captain of the Kop, came close to moving down to London in the mid-200s – only to have a sudden change of heart on each occasion.
In 2004, his hand was forced. The midfielder had agreed a £30m-plus switch to Chelsea, looking set to double his £60,000-per-week wages.
Liverpool ‘fans’ had other ideas. In rolled the threats against Gerrard and his family. Concern grew that if he left, his relatives would bear the brunt of the vitriol on Merseyside.
And so Gerrard reneged on his desire to leave, putting it very diplomatically: ‘For the first time in my career I thought about the possibility of moving on but after coming home from Euro 2004 and sitting down with my family and spending time with my agent, I have decided I am staying on at Liverpool Football Club.’
Until 2005, that is. Gerrard came very close to leaving again, and how Jose Mourinho would have loved it. He turned down a £100,000-per-week contract offer at Anfield and told the club of his intention to join Chelsea, though the Reds had rejected a £32m offer.
Just weeks after the Champions League final, it looked like he was headed for the day. That is, until the day later, july 6, when he suddenly announced he had performed a u-turn. Quite the sea-change.
‘I think in the last 24 hours he has reflected on it, he’s thought it through and he wants to stay. There were lots of late-night phone calls and early morning phone calls,’ said chief executive Rick Parry.
Steven Gerrard almost left Liverpool for Chelsea in 2004 and 2005, but changed heart
Wayne Rooney (Everton to Manchester United)
Wayne Rooney broke the hearts of Everton Valley when he left for Manchester United on deadline day in August 2004.
The nippy young forward handed in a transfer request with just days to go in the transfer window, seeking a move to either Manchester United or Newcastle.
The Toffees had rejected a £23.5m package from United but ultimately settled for one totalling £27m.
Rooney was duly branded a ‘devil’ and ‘Judas’ in furious graffiti by supporters who felt let down.
He went on to have a brilliant career at Old Trafford – and then returned to Goodison Park – but did threaten to walk out on United a couple of times, too.
In 2010 he told them that he had no intention of signing a new deal and was even contemplating crossing the divide to Manchester City, a la Carlos Tevez.
He was also eager to leave in 2013 amid interest from Chelsea, though that did not come to fruition.
Wayne Rooney left Everton for Manchester United on deadline day in 2004 and was branded a ‘devil’ and ‘Judas’
Clint Dempsey (Fulham to Liverpool/Tottenham)
Clint Dempsey was so determined to join Liverpool that in August 2012 he refused to play for Fulham.
The American had built up six years of goodwill at Craven Cottage, where he was twice the player of the season, but that was quickly extinguished.
Manager Martin Jol was furious at Liverpool, who he believed had unsettled his talisman earlier in the summer.
‘Even [Brendan Rodgers] told everyone he was interested in Clint Dempsey, but our people never had an offer on the table, so it’s almost embarrassing. If you have shown interest in a player, especially in England, you have to follow it up with an offer. They didn’t,’ said Jol.
And ultimately, Dempsey didn’t even get his desired move. Instead he went to Tottenham on deadline day.
Clint Dempsey went on strike to push through a move from Fulham to Liverpool in 2012 – but ended up at Tottenham
Diego Costa hid away in Brazil – and threatened to do so for a year – as he successfully drove a move from Chelsea to Atletico Madrid in 2017-18
Diego Costa (Chelsea to Atletico Madrid)
When in doubt, run to the other side of the world.
Chelsea striker Diego Costa fled to Brazil, the land of his birth, in the summer of 2017 when he was pining for a return to Atletico Madrid.
Costa told Daily Mail Sport that Antonio Conte had informed him he would not be part of his plans for the coming season… via a text. ‘Hi Diego, I hope you are well. Thanks for the seasono [sic] we spent together. Good luck for the next year but you are not in my plan,’ it allegedly read.
With no prospect of playing, Costa refused to train and said he was being treated like a ‘criminal’.
Costa said he had been given extra time off in Brazil, but was then fined around £300,000 for his absence.
He threatened to stay in Brazil for a year and withstand a 12-month fine if it meant not training and leaving on a free.
Ian Wright branded his behaviour ‘disgraceful’.
In the end, it did pay off. Atletico had a transfer ban that summer but announced in September that he would join in January 2018.