World Football Transfer News: Top 10 Players Who Stayed Put and Why

With the transfer window now closed until January, there are many clubs that can now look at their squad lists and be just as pleased with the players they have hung on to as the new additions they have brought in.

In any market, there will be some players who want to leave and others happy with their lot but subject to interest from other clubs nevertheless.

Some managers will go into deadline day thinking they are set for the rest of the year only to have a key component of their side ripped from their grasp at the last minute.

It would take a cold heart to not feel sympathy for Everton boss David Moyes, who saw star playmaker Mikel Arteta poached by Arsenal at the death and had no time to reinvest the £10 million he got for the Spaniard on such short notice.

Here are 10 players who generated plenty of column inches this summer, but begin September exactly where they were in May.

Gary Cahill

The England international was the one earmarked as the man to rescue Arsenal's defensive malaise, though perhaps more by fans and media than Arsene Wenger.

Bolton's stance had been firm over their chief centre-back since interest first became apparent in him in January. Manager Owen Coyle was required to state publicly on many occasions that he was a prize asset for the Trotters, and until a club came in with a bid which matched their valuation, then no offers would be entertained.

Coyle was able to do this from a position of strength. Bolton are a well-run and financially stable club, built upon the template set out by Sam Allardyce for signing talented players who, for whatever reason, had not been successful elsewhere and giving them a chance to prove themselves.

So when an offer finally arrived from Arsenal—a derisory £6 million—there was no danger of Cahill being sold.

Tottenham then took that as their queue to swoop in, but they too were not going to be drawn into paying an eight-figure sum for a player with one year left on his contract. Only Manchester City can do that.

As such, Cahill, who has admirably maintained his silence through the whole affair, remains at the Reebok Stadium, but expect the issue to be raised again if he has not signed a new deal by January and  is free to talk to other clubs about a summer free transfer. 

Luka Modric

While the likes of Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart grabbed most of the headlines for Tottenham last season, Modric was quietly going about his business as the heartbeat of a side which reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League and finished fifth in the Premier League.

His efforts did not go unrecognised by the club's fans who voted him their player of the season, or by Chelsea who branded the Croatian their marquee summer signing.

Modric had his head turned by the chance to join a club who would give him top European football and a better chance of winning medals every season, and after Spurs rejected Chelsea's initial £22 million bid, he announced he wanted to leave.

When chairman Daniel Levy refused, Modric went public with claims of a 'gentlemen's' agreement between the two the previous year which would allow any serious interest from a bigger club to be entertained.

Levy denied such an accord had been struck, and Modric was left to rue the fact his agent had not inserted a clause to that effect before a new six-year contract was signed.

Now that Levy had laid out his position, the pressure was on for him to stick to it—something he had not down with Dimitar Berbatov three years previously. Aware of that, Levy remained firm, even refusing a reported £40 million the day before the deadline.

By that time, however, Modric was away on international duty, and Chelsea had to settle for Raul Meireles instead.

Wesley Sneijder

The biggest name on most people's lips when it came to transfer gossip at the beginning of the summer, many were convinced Sneijder would be on the move after just two years at Inter Milan. 

Having won all there was to win in his first season in Italy, and reaching a World Cup final, the Dutchman's second season at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza was an unstable one.

Struck down by a nasty case of anaemia as the campaign got under way, Sneijder looked on as the Serie A and European champions struggled in the absence of departed manager Jose Mourinho and the presence of his replacement, Rafael Benitez.

Even after Leonardo took the reins in January, it was too late to topple league leaders and local rivals Milan, and a humiliating 7-3 aggregate defeat to Schalke 04 in the quarterfinals of the Champions League was another pointing to Sneijder needing to move on. 

Manchester United was the destination set for the Dutchman, a huge club which appeared to have a glaring vacancy for a diminutive, world-class playmaker following the retirement of Paul Scholes.

However, Alex Ferguson baulked at Sneijder's wage demands—reportedly more than £220,000 per week—and with hindsight, it is now clear he was confident enough in Anderson and Tom Cleverley to feel comfortable in passing up the opportunity. 

Inter, who needed to sell one of their star players, ended up sending striker Samuel Eto'o out of the club instead.

Carlos Tevez

When Tevez announced for a second time in the space of a few months that he wanted to leave Manchester City, it looked as though his position at the club was untenable.

City had managed to hang on to him over the winter, and the Argentinian still gave his all on the field, helping them to an automatic Champions League spot and the FA Cup.

But despite ending the season as the Premier League's joint top scorer, Tevez cited the need to be closer to his family, or at least to live in a culture more familiar to that of their Buenos Aires home, as the reason he wanted out.

A move to former club Corinthians was a possibility, but with City in as strong a financial position as any club could be, they held out for their £45 million asking price—something the Brazilian side simply could not match.

Inter Milan also registered their interest, but again they could not stump up the cash—not without letting Wesley Sneijder in addition to Samuel Eto'o go at any rate.

With the brilliant early-season form of Edin Dzeko and new signing Sergio Aguero, Tevez looks set to continue life as a City player, only spending the majority of it on the bench.

Neymar

One of the hottest young properties in world football, 19-year-old Neymar was linked with a whole host of top European clubs this summer. 

Manchester City, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan and new Russian kid on the block Anzhi Makhachkala were all heavily linked with the Brazilian forward who has been pulling up trees for Santos in the Campeonato Brasileiro and the national team.

The past few months saw conflicting dispatches from the player himself, his agent and Santos president Luis Alvro Ribeiro, but in the end it was Ribeiro who got his way.

When he revealed that the club had turned down two offers from Real, Ribeiro stated emphatically that Santos would not be held to ransom over their star player and were in a position to keep hold of him for as long as they wanted.

He said: "We have no interest in selling him and we will communicate this formally...Santos are not a tiny little club, we will play in the Club World Cup."

Marek Hamsik

Last season, the Napoli playmaker was part of the 'holy trinity' which saw the south Italian club storm its way into the Champions League and, for a while, threaten for the Serie A title.

The club's outspoken president, Aurelio de Laurentiis, made sure he got star striker Edinson Cavani locked down to a big contract before the vultures could start circling, and Ezequiel Lavaezzi's near deity-like status in Naples meant selling him could simply not be countenanced.

Hamsik looked just as secure to be part of Napoli's future plans, but that was before he began tentatively making noises about a possible move to Milan. Unless, of course, he just felt like repeatedly telling the press all about his respect and admiration for the club. 

The champions had been open in their pursuit of a new star player, although that target was cheekily dubbed 'Mr. X' by the club and media, and it was up to Rossoneri CEO Adriano Galliani to rule out the possibility of signing the Slovakian.

Eden Hazard

The Belgian wunderkind was one of the key players in Lille's championship charge in France last season and, as such, was inevitably linked with a move to Arsenal.

Liverpool were also thought to have been chasing the 20-year-old, but they took themselves out of the race by signing a trio of British attacking midfielders.

However, with Lille already losing Gervinho to the Gunners and Johan Cabaye to Newcastle, the newly-crowned Ligue 1 champions were desperate not to lose another one of their prize assets as they embarked on a title defence and a Champions League campaign.

The club's general manager Frederic Paquet had to field multiple enquiries about Hazard, and he could barely have been clearer in his most recent denial that the player would be moving on.

"Eden will not be leaving this season," said Paquet. "We are aware of interest from some of the biggest clubs in Europe but we are not prepared to sell.

"He is very happy here; he understands our project and wants to stay for at least another year."

Chris Samba

Cahill may have been the one to emerge as Arsenal's most desired target, but a groundswell of opinion had been growing towards the end of last season that Blackburn's giant defender was the real solution to all of their problems.

The Congolese centre-back embodies everything the Gunners defence is not: standing at 6'4", strong as an ox and dominant in the air.

The 27-year-old had voiced his dissatisfaction at Rovers owners Venkys for sacking previous manager Sam Allardyce and replacing him with Steve Kean when they took over last year, and repeated this threat to quit the club when there was no indication that any significant signings would be made to avoid another relegation battle.

He was also conspicuous by his absence in the embarrassing commercial featuring his teammates advertising Venkys' business as manufacturers of fried chicken.

Nevertheless, Arsenal opted for Germany international Per Mertesacker as their defensive colossus, albeit on deadline day, and Samba may be placated by the addition of defender Scott Dann from Birmingham and striker Yakubu from Everton as a sign that things are looking up at Ewood Park.

Dimitar Berbatov

Berbatov's fall from grace at Manchester United last season was a surprising and sudden one.

As he charged to the top of the Premier League scoring charts by virtue of a hat trick against Liverpool and five goals against Blackburn, the Bulgarian found himself ousted from the first team by Javier Hernandez and then dropped from the matchday squad for the Champions League final.

Upon hearing the news that he had been dropped against Barcelona at Wembley, Berbatov did not take his place on the bench, later admitting that his exclusion brought him to tears and he could not show his face in public.

A departure from Old Trafford after three years at the club seemed inevitable, and when the Qatari takeover of Paris-Saint Germain meant the French club had been handed an immense transfer budget, the move made perfect sense for a 30-year-old whose intermittent brilliance was not enough to satisfy a large section of the club's support.

However, Alex Ferguson had persisted with the striker through fallow periods before, and two Premier League titles and two European Cup final appearances were all the vindication he needed to retain Berbatov for at least the final year of his current contract.

Papiss Demba Cisse

Hardly a star name compared to some of the other players on this list, but the Senegalese striker became increasingly sought-after as the transfer window progressed.

The forward has scored consistently at a rate of a goal every two games for the past three years, first for French second division club Metz and then for Bundesliga club Freiburg upon his move there midway through the 2009-10 season.

Last term, Cisse took his strike rate up a level, netting 22 goals in just 32 league games, helping Freiburg to a reasonably comfortable mid-table finish. 

Now 26 years old, he has taken that lethal form into the new season by scoring four goals in as many games. That convinced Newcastle to join Fulham and Rubin Kazan in the race to sign him, but Freiburg held firm and kept their man, even if they accept that he may move on sooner rather than later.

"The issue has been dealt with," said sporting director Dirk Dufner. "He is a very special lad and we are fortunate that he is with us. We want to enjoy this fortune for a little while longer."