Riyad's transfer efforts leave Leciester miffed

London, September 1: Riyad Mahrez is on a collision course with Leicester City after taking the remarkable step of leaving the Algeria national squad to force a move on deadline day.

Mahrez is staying at Leicester until January at the earliest despite flying to London in a bid to leave the former Premier League champions, in a move which bemused the Leicester officials.

Leicester were stunned to discover the Algerian FA had tweeted that Mahrez was given permission to leave the training camp to finalise a move to another club, reports the Telegraph.

The tweet was later deleted and reports of Mahrez being spotted across Europe then surfaced for most of the day, sparking memories of Peter Odemwingie's infamous crusade in January 2013 when he drove to QPR even though a deal was not agreed.

Chelsea, Spurs and Barcelona were linked with Mahrez but Leicester stuck to their valuation of around £50 million. Roma were the only club to make offers for the former PFA Player of the Year yet their bids came nowhere near Leicester's asking price.

Mahrez will now have to explain his actions to Leicester when he returns from international duty, with his bizarre behaviour proving ultimately futile.

Leicester did sanction the £35m sale of Danny Drinkwater to Chelsea, but moved swiftly for long-term target Adrien Silva.