Bellamys caddy i think u might be right, but a written transfer request might not be necessary, rumour and innuendo is enough to do it in most cases. Us football fans in this country are a fickle bunch, in italy or spain if this saga was happening the fans would all be begging for him to stay ala the kaka saga.
In this country however for some strange reason we are a bit different and as soon as we hear a player might be leaving our immediate respnse he's shit, always injured, not worth the money, can get someone else into replace him for that money etc etc. This can be seen with the rags reactions to Ronaldo, villas reactions to barry and chelseas reaction to terry and he hasnt even gone or said he wants to go