Riyad Mahrez believes that Leicester “were blocking” his departure “behind the scenes”.
Riyad Mahrez has accused Leicester of blocking a summer move, and cleared up some lingering deadline day confusion.
Mahrez was expected to depart Leicester in the summer, a year after he initially expressed his desire to leave.
But even though Arsenal and Roma showed a particular interest, the winger remained at the King Power Stadium.
Mahrez believes much of that was down to Leicester themselves.
“They didn’t want to sell me,” he told the Daily Mail. “They said, ‘Yes, no problem if something comes up’. But behind the scenes they were blocking stuff — talking to clubs but just not wanting to sell me.
“But I’m confident. Contract or no contract, I believe I will get to the top. When you have quality, and show it, there’s no problem.”
On the transfer request he lodged in the summer, Mahrez added: “I wanted to be transparent, not play people around, be honest about it.”
Confusion arose on deadline day when the Algeria national team fuelled rumours by stating that Mahrez had been released from international duty to carry out transfer business.
“The Algeria national team let me leave their base because there was a chance a move might happen and we were going so far away, to Zambia, for a World Cup qualifier,” he said.
“I flew from Algeria to Paris and after that I was reading, ‘Riyad is here, Riyad is there. Riyad is somewhere else’.
“No. I was at home in France all the time. I missed the Zambia game because there was no way to get out there. They couldn’t organise a flight.”
