Extreme measures taken by footballers in the past to force a transfer

#2 Refuse to train or play

Great sportsmanship from Dembouz

Who should try this?

This works well if you're one of those top-notch footballers. It's simply because your club would be willing to pay you to play for huge sums of money. This fashion started in the late 1990s thanks to the likes of Nicolas Anelka and Pierre van Hooijdonk who told Arsenal and Nottingham Forest they would not, in fact, be playing for them anymore.

Who did this?

Okay, okay, we know you're probably thinking of Nikola Kalinić right now and how he missed out on the tag of being a World Cup finalist after having followed the second best tip. He's a poor example of this famed technique which has brought a lot of success. You can't secure a move away from your country; what ]was he thinking?

For a better paragon of this technique, there's Luka Modric, his own captain whom the Croatian striker tried to emulate (of course, in an out-of-context way). Gareth Bale took a leaf out of Lukita's book and was with him at Madrid in no time. Ousmane Dembele tried this and it worked wonders. More importantly, have you heard anyone giving them s**t for it any longer? Nope, this technique works wonders.

This was taken to a whole new level with William Gallas of Chelsea. He had grown so frustrated under Mourinho that he threatened to score an own goal if he was picked! The Abramovich-led club were quick to move him onto Arsenal as part of the Cole deal soon enough.