LEICESTER, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 23: Riyad Mahrez of Leicester in action during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Manchester United at The King Power Stadium on December 23, 2017 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

It has been four days since Riyad Mahrez was last seen at Leicester City. The Algerian now treading down the dreaded territory, there’s a strong sense of trouble, a miasma of chaos and the premonition of an ugly saga that’ll go deep into the next summer.

From the magic man that most of us would like to fondly remember him as, he is fast-becoming a virulently loathed figure at the King Power Stadium – but is he to be solely blamed for the shambolic state of affairs that he finds himself in? Put crudely, no.

Leicester City have to take equally as much blame for the currently prevailing helter-skelter at the club. Neither of the two parties are either completely right or totally wrong here, but the circumstances that they must now face and fight are only the result of their own doings.

Where the Leicester management is at fault is a shocking failure to keep the promises they made to the 26-year old rebel. Despite assuring him of not standing in the way shall an offer be made, not only have Leicester done the opposite, they have done so in an embarrassing manner – and that doesn’t bode well for them as far as future transfer targets are concerned.

Having signed Riyad Mahrez for an amount equivalent of Alexis Sanchez’s weekyl wages at Manchester United, even £10 million would have represented some excellent bit of business. Of course, no one is asking them to sell the 2015/16 player of the year for that low a price, but plonking a £95 million price tag on his head, especially when you’re aware of it being an unrealistic demand in January, only comes across as a deliberate attempt to block a transfer. They did it back in the summer with AS Roma, and they did it again here with Manchester City.

Leicester City’s intentions may have only been to send the message that they aren’t a selling club, but having sold N’Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater, is there any challenging what seems like a fairly obvious fact here? They are resigned to lose Riyad Mahrez anyway – it has been that way for a year now – so there’s no value in keeping hold of him.

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He’d leave and Leicester will still be branded a selling club, as would any outfit that doesn’t constitute the Premier League’s big five (or six?). This is not to suggest that Leicester City are a small club, but it’s just that the lure of a big European powerhouse is too much to resist. With all due respect, if the Premier League’s big boys can lose their best players to Barcelona or Real Madrid, then here we are talking about an East Midlands-based club. What kind of a Mahrez would not want to be in London or Madrid?

But then again, Riyad Mahrez is no saint. He may have found a more sensible way to let the degree of his want be known. If the Algeria international has given Leicester City his all, the club has invested in him, too.

They have turned him into a footballing demigod from the unknown commodity that he was, and they do deserve something slightly better than seeing their best player disappear for days, with the club having no idea of his whereabouts. It’s unprofessional, unethical and a horrid reflection of what Mahrez can do at any club when it doesn’t go his way.

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He’d look back at it some day and regret every bit of what he did in a bid to grab his big chance, just as some of the others would who took the same approach and were never welcomed back at their club despite achieving big things. Again, this isn’t to say that he was wrong to demand what he deserved, but it is to tell that sometimes, civility is the way to go. Look at Olivier Giroud, for example.

What’s next in this Riyad Mahrez saga is, at least for now, the subject of mystery and doubts. What’s more clear, however, is that the current tussle between the club and player is everything that you need to know about what modern football has come to.

As Mahrez’s self-imposed abeyance continues in all its glory, there does remain a sense that this, too, shall pass and football be looked forward to.