Let's not buy Raiola players again - ever

Zen86

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I think doing a bit of homework on player behaviour and personality fit, like we used to, is probably the better option here. It’s just as, if not more important a criteria as natural talent.
 

Isotope

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Raiola has been successful throughout his career by doing the same thing to every of his big clients. If we're fine with this, then get his clients. If we put hope that because we're United, he'll change, than fool is in us.
 

flappyjay

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That's how I see the whole saga as well. From Pogba's POV it's pretty logical, at this point of his career he needs to challenge for the biggest titles. United was supposed to become that sort of team under Mourinho. It obviously didn't work out, and the club will need at least 2-3 seasons for the rebuild.
Yep he bought into the project and now the project has fell apart. Let's be honest it was enticing at that point, Raiola probably told him about the Mkhitaryan and zlatan deals before they were announced. So probably thought to himself that seems a good project.
 

He'sRaldo

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If we are winning titles and challenging constantly, players wouldn't want to leave (at least the majority).
Instead of not getting Raiola players, we should focus on returning to a level where players would want to come here, instead of wanting to escape.
Slight correction. If we're challenging constantly, quality players won't want to leave us. A lot of our current players would love to stay, but they're dross :D. It's the quality and ambitious ones that are trying to leave.
 

elPampa

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With Pogba openly wanting out, and with the transfer saga og De Ligt, not to mention how often Zlatan changed club during his career, I think there's a clear pattern:

Raiola players are acting like spoiled brats, thinking money > loyalty and affiliation.

Call me sentimental, because the days of Totti's and Giggs' are over for far most of the players. Mainly due to agents. It's fine - I don't expect players to be one-club wonders. But this club-jumping, sponsorship announcements on star players and shit has grown me tired.

We're in the race for De Ligt. Honestly - If Raiola is gonna push for him to move on in 3 years, then I say let PSG have him.
I don't want more bigger-than-club players. I think this specific agent is more toxic for the players he represent, than most may realize.

wow, my english did not allow it, but they have absolutely my opinion. I love de ligt, but if it is necessary to get away from the pimp Raiola it is worth it! consequence
 

roonster09

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Fair enough on that one but the Mendes thing is known for years. Few examples

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/5nkekb/benachour_jorge_mendes_screwed_me_told_me_that/

EIC: Jorge Mendes somehow at the last moment pocketed €7.25m from PSG's deal for what Football Leaks suspects was providing the service of driving speculation throughout the summer that Mbappé would move to Real Madrid, thus sparking a bidding war for the player.
Also from one Portuguese club (Sporting), wonder how many have the same complaints.

"Jorge Mendes' right-hand man called us at 11 at night and asked what was Sporting's position. Jorge Mendes wanted to take advantage of a situation.

"Gestifute told us that they wanted €3million from Rui Patricio's business and another €4million from Adrien or we had no business.

"The money is not mine, it belongs to Sporting. Here we do the management of money as if it were ours. To accept giving a seven million man, whom we think is not entitled, we do not do it.

"It would be a crime against Sporting to accept blackmail like this. Sporting can not be under fear, under blackmail or under threat."
https://theblacksea.eu/stories/football-leaks-2018/mendes-besiktas-deals/


Now that he is bringing players to your club, everything is fine. On the other hand, clubs who are on the wrong side of the agent will say different stories.
 
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flappyjay

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Slight correction. If we're challenging constantly, quality players won't want to leave us. A lot of our current players would love to stay, but they're dross :D. It's the quality and ambitious ones that are trying to leave.
It's a sad reality.
 

WolfInSharp'sClothing

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Fair enough on that one but the Mendes thing is known for years. Few examples

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/5nkekb/benachour_jorge_mendes_screwed_me_told_me_that/



Also from one Portuguese club (Sporting), wonder how many have the same complaints.



https://theblacksea.eu/stories/football-leaks-2018/mendes-besiktas-deals/


Now that he is bringing players to your club, everything is fine. On the other hand, clubs who are on the wrong side of the agent will say different stories.

The things you highlight are not against the rules though. Mendes has broken no rules.

Agents will make demands if they have secured their clients a move for a good transfer fee. As a club, you can either choose to embrace agents, or you can fight against them. Until the rules are changed, there's only going to be one winner.

I think it would be a bit hypocritical to suddenly turn on Mendes once he sells one of Wolves' better players. I know it will happen at some stage, but I'm confident that he will help to replace them too. I think the key is not getting too attached to players nowadays.
 

roonster09

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The things you highlight are not against the rules though. Mendes has broken no rules.

Agents will make demands if they have secured their clients a move for a good transfer fee. As a club, you can either choose to embrace agents, or you can fight against them. Until the rules are changed, there's only going to be one winner.

I think it would be a bit hypocritical to suddenly turn on Mendes once he sells one of Wolves' better players. I know it will happen at some stage, but I'm confident that he will help to replace them too. I think the key is not getting too attached to players nowadays.
Tax fraud is against the rules though?

If we are talking about rules, then don't think Raiola broke any rules too. Mendes, Raiola all are same, they get what is best for their clients.
 

André Dominguez

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All agents are extremely greedy bastards. Most of them will even feck their own clients for their own financial benefit. "Super" agents like Raiola or Mendes, who basically have hundreds of sub-agents working for their companies, are too powerful atm to be put aside, since the club who does that will loose access to a lot of players.
 

buckooo1978

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we are reliant on people like Raiola, Mendes and co

we are reliant on them as we have a clown with no football experience who has the final say in transfers

maybe if we had a football management structure in place with a Technical Director, we could use scouting to identify the right players

in year 1 after all the bluster the only thing Woodward came up with was a deal for Fellaini (4m over his transfer clause :lol:) and a fat contract for Rooney. Since then he's relied on 'super-agents'.

until then it's hard to see us avoiding these snakes
 

Murder on Zidane's Floor

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Verratti - at PSG (billionaire club, no need to sell) for many years after signing from Serie B team
Donnarumma (isn't actually that good) - At Milan for last 3-4 years and didn't move to any club
Manolas (isn't that good, demand isn't high) - At Roma from 2014 after siging from Greek league
Moise Kean - At Juventus, their academy player (give it time)
Mkhitaryan - Moved from Dortmund to ManUtd and then was forced out from ManUtd
Matuidi - Moved from PSG to Juventus when he wasn't needed (nice cash bump for Raiola)
Balotelli
(guy is a moron and thinks he is better than he is, perhaps Raiola in his ear telling him so) - He was offloaded from every club except Inter
Kluivert - Signed for Roma from Dutch league (give it time)
Zlatan - Only club where he forced his move was from Inter. Juve were relegated so he had to move. He was sold by Milan for financial reasons.
Maxwell - Stayed at various clubs for many years

It's not Raiola, it's the players who wants to leave.
Ftfy
 

youmeletsfly

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I don't really understand the Raiola hate. It could be Mendez hate, Jay Z hate or anyone. It's the whole environment that is a bit toxic.
We have too much money in football, that's the issue. Of course the agent will also consider his side of things when there are 100 mil in play for a single player.

It's sad that agent commissions can't be regulated by Fifa/Uefa, that's the big one. I'm curious how it's in US.
 

JPRouve

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I don't really understand the Raiola hate. It could be Mendez hate, Jay Z hate or anyone. It's the whole environment that is a bit toxic.
We have too much money in football, that's the issue. Of course the agent will also consider his side of things when there are 100 mil in play for a single player.

It's sad that agent commissions can't be regulated by Fifa/Uefa, that's the big one. I'm curious how it's in US.
In the US, it's the same story.

https://www.forbes.com/sports-agents/list/#tab:overall
 

JPRouve

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Jesus, that's good business for them but fecking disgusting for everyone else, player included in some cases.
An other thing, CAA and Gestifute are linked, they more or less control football.
 

Bastian

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I think we really have to stop going after his clients. He is a virus and we just cannot be dealing with him anymore. I'd go so far as to stipulate in contracts for new players that if they sign for United they cannot hire him as an agent for the duration of their contract here.
 

Mainoldo

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I think we really have to stop going after his clients. He is a virus and we just cannot be dealing with him anymore. I'd go so far as to stipulate in contracts for new players that if they sign for United they cannot hire him as an agent for the duration of their contract here.
He's not lying though. We would ruin Messi.

Us fans need to stop acting like a woman scorned and address the actual issues with our club.
 

Lastwolf

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If you play with fire, prepared to be burned.

Raiola is a snake, but he's a good spotter of talent and worms his way into these deals one way or another.

If you want the best players, you're going to deal with one asshole agent or another, Raiola is just the best/worst of them depending on perspective.

As much as I understand it from Pogba's perspective, it's such a weak move, he has 3 possible years left on a contract and no-one wants to pay for him. But we make a rod for our own back by being such a shit show, if we were top 1-3 and in CL every year, he wouldn't be saying much. Pogba will be 29 by the time his contract runs out, his window to join a Champions league challenging team will be tighter, if we don't make the CL next year again, he's not even in the shop window for those teams, De Gea has proven, at a certain point they'll be on to the new hotness and he'll be stuck here being massively overpaid.
 

tjb

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He may be right but so many teams have been in our position trying to rebuild. We never signed these type of players before Fergie, now we know why. We should go back to that and I see us doing it now under Ole.
I don't agree with him about Pogba either. Ibra was a star for us and maintained that status. If you need every star around you to perform, then we have to question his own star. We do need to attack the market, but we have to be a bit more careful in spotting the personalities we are dealing with. We need to go back to shunning players who do not have the best interest of the club. Reminds ms of Bayern in the 90s, liverpool in the 90s and real Madrid in the 2000s. Too many Hollywood players who haven't achieved anything yet.
 

dev1l

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I think we really have to stop going after his clients. He is a virus and we just cannot be dealing with him anymore. I'd go so far as to stipulate in contracts for new players that if they sign for United they cannot hire him as an agent for the duration of their contract here.
BTW I think Raiola s strategy is to get the fans against Pogba so United will be forced to sell.
So it s very important that us fans continue to support Paul. We know that his agent is the problem.
 

bond19821982

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I dont think that quote is verified yet. Are you sure it's not fake ?
 

ash_86

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Liverpool, City, Spurs,Chelsea all have exactly 0 Raiola players. It's not difficult to find players that are not involved with this tool.
 

ayushreddevil9

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Liverpool, City, Spurs,Chelsea all have exactly 0 Raiola players. It's not difficult to find players that are not involved with this tool.
I think Bayern, Madrid and PSG too? I might be wrong
 

Mainoldo

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He may be right but so many teams have been in our position trying to rebuild. We never signed these type of players before Fergie, now we know why. We should go back to that and I see us doing it now under Ole.
I don't agree with him about Pogba either. Ibra was a star for us and maintained that status. If you need every star around you to perform, then we have to question his own star. We do need to attack the market, but we have to be a bit more careful in spotting the personalities we are dealing with. We need to go back to shunning players who do not have the best interest of the club. Reminds ms of Bayern in the 90s, liverpool in the 90s and real Madrid in the 2000s. Too many Hollywood players who haven't achieved anything yet.
Ferdinand
Veron
Vieira (Nearly got him)
RVN
Ronaldinho (Nearly got him)
Robben
Essien
Tevez
Rooney
RVP
Hazard (agent fees)
Benzema (Chose Real)

Just a few examples... just trying to figure out when we never 'tried' to sign these type of players..It's this more fake truths.
 

cyberman

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I do think hes overplayed the Halaand hand. Unless hes ridiculous then who goes for him? All number 9s seem to need speed or the ability to drop deep and bring wide forwards into play.
Out of the top 7 or 8 clubs its only Arsenal who have signed a high profile striker so who signd him if hes a moderate success? The striker option seems to have fallen into the cheaper side of the scale since the real stars are impossible to get.
Clubs are too powerful to allow clients to go from club to club every 3 years for an entourage pay day anyway. When youre locked in, youre locked in.
 

AFC NimbleThumb

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He's not lying though. We would ruin Messi.

Us fans need to stop acting like a woman scorned and address the actual issues with our club.
This./

He’s an unprofessional gobshite but his quotes here are actually on the nail.
 

pascell

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What he said isn't wrong at all, we're neither here nor there as a club atm, we need to build our way back up to the top.

Also, Raiola is just acting with the best interests of his client, if they feel Pogba is better suited elsewhere, Raiola will try his best to make it happen because it's what his client wants. If Raiola doesn't give Pogba what he wants, someone else will.