Xavi Simons appears to be doing everything in his power to push through a transfer to Chelsea.
This was confirmed on Saturday when Fabrizio Romano revealed that he missed RB Leipzig training and would not take part in their Saturday friendly against Atalanta.
Crucially, the transfer expert revealed it was “his decision” not to take part.
Leipzig responded on Saturday, claiming that Simons is missing because of a neck injury, yet it appears that Romano let the cat out of the bag.
While there are often cases of players refusing to train in order to force transfers, there has been a particular epidemic of it lately, with four superstars notably taking part in the practice.
Why do players refuse to train?
Most typically, footballers refuse to train due to a disagreement with their club. Most frequently, this is over transfer bids being rejected.
Some of the footballing world’s biggest names have done this in the past. Notably, PSG’s Kylian Mbappe went AWOL from training in the summer of 2023 as he tried to force a move to Real Madrid.
It didn’t work for him at the time, but he simply played out the rest of the season at Parc des Princes and then moved to Los Blancos as a free agent.
A year ago, Victor Osimhen was similarly in dispute with Napoli. He didn’t get his dream move either but did ultimately leave the club to join Galatasaray on loan.
What players have done it this summer and has it worked?
Viktor Gyokeres is a notable example. He did not take part in Sporting CP’s pre-season but instead trained alone – although one of his agents has since claimed it was the Portuguese side’s decision to give him an ‘extended holiday’.
Ultimately, the Sweden international got his move to Arsenal, although a key factor in that is the agents waiving a €6.5m share they were due from the deal.
His compatriot Alexander Isak is another high-profile case. The Newcastle United striker’s situation is ongoing, however. He has been using Real Sociedad’s training facilities amid interest from Liverpool, but The Athletic reports he is getting ready to resume working with Eddie Howe’s side again.
Like Simons, his club initially wrote off his absence as being injury-related. Newcastle claimed a thigh problem was kept him out of a friendly with Celtic and then their tour of the Far East.
The other player tied into this situation this summer is Yoane Wissa of Brentford – a player who Newcastle have been heavily linked with.
He left the Bees’ pre-season training camp in Portugal claiming to be ‘unsettled’ by transfer speculation and reports claimed that he refused to participate in team training. He believes that Brentford broke a verbal agreement to allow him to leave for around €30m.
Although Wissa is training again, he is not thought to be working with the squad.
So the results so far have been mixed for these players. Gyokeres’ stance likely played some role in his Arsenal move, though just how much is debatable. It remains to be seen what the future holds for Isak, Wissa and Simons, although for now it looks like all will ultimately get their moves.
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