Any agent who does not have the same ethos as Raiola is an idiot, and probably a poor agent. And some fans need to grow up and get real with this playground anti-Raiola thing. There is no agent that will put the Great Manchester United ahead of the will of their clients. The only real difference is that Raiola has profile, and as a result, intermittently speaks to the press with his views. But to think any agent will have a different view to him is probably fanciful. Reading the interview, he says exactly what any player should want their agent to say.
And I highly doubt the intermittent comment in the press is as ‘destabilising’ to the dressing room as people like to make out either. These players (and managers) understand the business. They have been in this world for years, have moved from club to club many times and have agents of their own. It’s us fans who get precious, and the media peddle it because it’s something to talk about. If there’s any chance of us to sign Haaland, we absolutely should do. If he leaves Manchester United one day, it will be because either he has decided to, or that we have decided to - a side that people forget with the business too. We signed the teenage sensation of the time in Martial, with the same scope to spend his entire career here that fans love, yet many of those fans seem to want to push him out now, even though he himself is showing no signs of unhappiness and disloyalty. We moan that the club ‘gives contracts’ to players we don’t want anymore. Fans need to just accept that this is the business. If Haaland wants to join us now, and we want him - do the deal. If both parties can satisfy the interests of each other, the relationship will continue until that’s no longer the case. The emotional side is packaged and sold to fans, but in reality, I don’t see Raiola as some sort of villain. He’s just a football agent. And by all accounts, a good one. All this ‘Raiola will move him for money’ is unsubstantiated petulance to me.
