Riyad Mahrez

I think the reason Man City can turn around and say “the player doesn’t meet with our valuation,” is that they are sitting on top of the PL, way ahead of every other team, playing the best football in Europe.

When Wenger does it, the player involved is usually a player we need, that has a fair pair price, but Wenger doesn’t like paying unless it is a bargain,.
So inevitably we lose out on a player we are desperate for, just for the sake of a few million.

I’m not even sure how much difference Sanchez or Mahrez would make to Man City anyway.
They are both brilliant players but have been big fish in their respective small ponds.

Playing with similar standard players at Man City, where they play as a team, rather than relying on individual talent, like we did with Sanchez and Leicester do with Mahrez, might not be ideal.

I just hope some of the petulance we saw when Sanchez was frustrated with our play, is replicated at Man U, with Mourinho’s boring style of play.

They’d make a bigger difference than the 300 million they’ve spent on defenders and goalkeepers for just a few million more. Yes they’ll win the PL easily this year but will they win the CL? Because that’s what they’re aim is with the mega spending.

Bottom line is they could have had either player for a few million more and they’d improve their XI. They also have the arrogance to wait until deadline day to pressure the selling team.

They could have had either but it could also have worked against them, having a player like Sanchez, who’s temperament is sometimes volatile.

It’s true, they might have waited until the end of the window to try and sign him, but It’s not as if we didn’t do exactly the same thing with Evans and Luiz.
I’m sure Man City had already sounded him out and as I said, they don’t need him, they were just trying to buy a player like Mahrez for top quality strength in depth.

There’s absolutely no excuse for unprofessional behaviour. Not doing himself a favour if the matter proceeds to arbitration

1 Like

Good for Leicester…It doesn’t matter what what anyone thinks he’s worth, apart from the selling club, ie Leicester. If they wanted 195 million, thats their decision, he should not have signed a very lucrative contract if he didn’t want to stay…Players have far too much power in modern football, and the way he’s behaving is not helping his cause…As i said, good for Leicester, let him rot…

He’s worth more than that in this inflated market tbh.

But as with most footballers they are worth what any prospective club is willing pay.

I support him taking this stance.

the window is closed though, so whats the point?

He needs to fire his agent.

It wasn’t his agent asking for extortionate amounts of money. It was the club.

1 Like

He’s definitely worth more, I just wouldn’t be happy if we paid more for him

The point is that Leicester get punished. If he feels like they’ve fucked him over or went back on their word then he’s doing the only thing he can to make them feel some kind of pain. They say you shouldn’t keep an unhappy player, maybe you have to prove to your club that you are unhappy first.

It sounds like City made a decent offer and I don’t really know what Leicester are expecting to gain by keeping him. It’s not like they’re a club that’s really going anywhere and I doubt they’re ever going to get a bigger offer and I doubt he really wants to be there. It’s not like the “keep Alexis and he might get you top 4” argument.

1 Like

Cutting off the nose to spite the face springs to mind.

Quite nonsensical to not let him go, City were dicks with the timing though. He would most likely be a City player if they had gone for him in early January.

1 Like

If I was him, I would go to training, work hard as fuck, get selected and then score an own goal or two.

I don’t blame Mahrez TBH…big fan of his as a player and would still have him at Arsenal. He made his desire to play for a bigger club known, Leicester seem to acknowledge that and keep moving the goal posts. If he plays for them again (almost certain but doesn’t seem likely for a few games) his form is going to dip and his behaviour will put some clubs off.

City were only interested because of the injury to Sane and Mahrez was a quick fix. Pep is not looking at him to strengthen the squad as they already have a lot of options and similar players. Can’t see them going back in form him in the summer.

1 Like

I reckon City are telling him to strike to get his price down. Tapping up players is something we know Guardiola/Begiristain did with Fabregas and he allegedly went on strike. And Alexis was tapped up before any bid was put in and he downed tools this season.

1 Like

honestly I don’t blame him for missing training, he’s done everything he can for Leicester (including help win them the league) and since the end of that season he’s asked to leave every transfer window, because he’s outgrown them and really needs to move to a bigger club to continue to improve, but they just won’t let him. They let other players leave but just not Mahrez and it’s obvious he doesn’t want to stay

1 Like

He can always buy out his contract which he willingly signed, if he is desperate.

Reminds me of when Ronaldo compared the job to slavery. Shambles.

As a club who received an excellent return from the player who they bought for pennies, they could show some appreciation by not blocking his moves to a bigger club especially considering they are back to being a mid table club.
Even if they relax the transfer price to say 45-50m, they will still come away with 4000-5000% return or more on the expenditure they incurred on Mahrez; on top of the fact that he won them the dream.

It is simply greed now on Leicester’s behalf, trying to maximize an already lucrative ROI on Mahrez.

They are spoiling a lovely story for club, player and fans. If they let him go like they did with Kante, all parties would have had an amicable settlement.

While Mahrez should be professional because he clearly was stupid enough to sign a long term contract for Leicester without a clause to ease his transfer away.

I am leaning to sympathise with Mahrez. Long may he shits over everyone and himself.