But if the club don't want to sell and the player has enough time left on their contract, would you agree that they don't actually have to? There is nothing the player or agent can actually do to force them other than threaten to down tools?
It used to be the case that the smaller club couldn't realistically turn down the kind of money the bigger clubs were offering. Now that's not a factor at all.
As Man United fans, you've already seen a change in the last few years in how you are unable to cherry pick the best players from teams like Spurs (as you have done in the past with he likes of Carrick and Berbatov). You'll start to see more situations like Sanchez and Alderweireld in the next few years, where if players want to move on, they need to run their contracts right down.
That same resolve is slowly creeping into the rest of the league. See Leicester with Mahrez and Maguire for example. Yes Mahrez moved eventually, but a season later than he (and probably his agent) wanted to!
