Alexander Isak’s standoff with Newcastle escalated on Wednesday when the striker was ordered to train separately from his teammates and stay away from a lunchtime training-ground barbecue.
The Swede is presumably as gutted as anyone that Manchester United look set to beat the Magpies to his possible replacement Benjamin Sesko, and with Liverpool in the baller position of not needing him and therefore refusing to up the ante to pressure Newcastle into his sale, Isak may consider a strike as his only recourse to secure his dream transfer.
Here are ten previous Premier League players who refused to train or play for their clubs to force an exit.
Dimitri Payet
“I worked hard in every game without taking any pleasure,” Payet said of Slaven Bilic’s dreary football as West Ham boss having downed tools in January 2017. “You could say I was pissed off.”
The exit push came on the back of him winning the Premier League Player of the Year and less than a year after he signed a new five-year deal at The London Stadium worth £125,000 per week. Best not to mention his name in East London.
Raheem Sterling
Liverpool had already rejected a couple of Manchester City offers for Sterling in the summer of 2015 before the winger asked not to go on the Reds’ pre-season tour.
He had already snubbed a £100,000 per week extension in his bid to force a move he eventually got when City coughed up the £50m Liverpool wanted. Deemed a helluva lot for the mercurial winger at the time, Pep Guardiola turned Sterling into goalscoring machine to help them to four Premier League titles in five seasons at the Etihad.
William Gallas
How we would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Gallas told Jose Mourinho he would score own goals or make deliberate mistakes if he was selected for Chelsea while trying to force through a move to Arsenal, who were offering him more money in the summer of 2006 than the Premier League champions.
Gallas got we he wanted but so too did Chelsea, who paid just £5m plus the wantaway defender for Ashley Cole.
Diego Costa
Inarguably the most understandable strike of all given the combination of Antonio Conte telling Costa ‘you are not in my plans’ via text message the summer after his 20 goals helped Chelsea to the 2016/2017 title and the club’s weirdly antithetical not-for-sale stance.
Costa chilled in Brazil for six months while his replacement Alvaro Morata slipped into depression at Stamford Bridge, before making a £57m return to Atletico Madrid in January 2018.
Riyad Mahrez
The Premier League champion went AWOL after Leicester told Manchester City they wanted £95m for the Algerian on deadline day in January 2018.
“You’ll always have regrets but at that time I thought it was the best thing to do,” Mahrez said after missing a couple of games for the Foxes. “I was away because I needed time to think, it was a difficult situation.”
Mahrez missed out on a consecutive title having missed out on the move in January, but went on to win a further four Premier League gongs having moved to City that summer, along with three League Cups, two FA Cups and the Champions League.
Sebastien Squillaci
“I knew if I played against Braga then I would not have been able to play for Arsenal in the Champions League,” Squillaci explained when asked why he refused to turn out for Sevilla in August 2010 despite being named in their starting lineup.
The Frenchman ironically made his Champions League bow for the Gunners in their 6-0 win over Braga, who made the group stage courtesy of a 5-3 aggregate win over Sevilla which may not have happened had Squillaci been playing.
Arsenal fans remembering the centre-back’s contributions for them in three years at the Emirates will likely suggest he would have made little difference.
MORE ON ALEXANDER ISAK FROM F365
👉 Ornstein reveals Isak update as Newcastle ‘accept no middle ground’ with ‘chapter closed’
👉 Liverpool: Carragher reveals doubt on Isak as he ‘doesn’t want’ Reds to ‘spend £150m’ for one reason
Dimitar Berbatov
“We put him on the map,” said an angry Daniel Levy after Berbatov refused to play against Sunderland or Chelsea at the start of the 2008/2009 season amid interest from Manchester United, with Sir Alex Ferguson branding Levy’s complaints to the Premier League over their supposed tapping up of the Bulgarian as “embarrassing” after the Red Devils secured his £30m transfer.
Carlos Tevez
Having already had one half of Manchester turn against him by moving to City after two years at United, Tevez set about burning all of his bridges in the city when he refused to come off the bench during a Champions League clash at Bayern Munich in September 2011.
The striker was suspended and fined while agent Kia Joorabchian failed to negotiate his transfer to AC Milan, before returning in March to help City to their first Premier League title with four goals and three assists across the last ten games of the season, eventually leaving for Juventus a year later for a cut-price fee of £12m.
Pierre van Hooijdonk
“I achieved some memorable things in football but in England they always talk about that and that’s a shame,” Van Hooijdonk said when reflecting on his decision to return to the Netherlands rather than play for Nottingham Forest after helping them to the Premier League in 1998.
The striker already had a fractious relationship with Dave Bassett after the Forest boss promised him an exit after securing promotion, but told Newcastle to pay £10m after a £7m bid. “£10m in 1997 was ridiculous,” Van Hooijdonk said. “That’s like trying to sell a cappuccino for £25.” It would be close to £200m in today’s money.
Basset was “disgusted” with the Dutchman, who returned after missing the first 11 games of the season, ahead of a £4.5m move to Vitesse in the summer of 1999.
Harry Kane
Sky Sports’ man on the beat Gary Cotterill was “counting in the cars” to the Tottenham training ground in August 2021 before confirming that Mr Spurs had refused to turn up for training for the second day on the bounce after Manchester City had a £100m bid rejected for his services.
The lily-livered striker came crawling back a couple of days later insisting “I would never, and have never, refused to train” despite Tottenham being ‘disappointed’ by his absence amid reports he was ‘heavily fined’ for not attending.
Kane scored a further 59 goals for his boyhood club before an £82m move to Bayern in 2023.