Mino Raiola attacks Guardiola

"Overrated" used to be one of the buzzwords when people were having a rant at Pep.
Seems to have been dropped now.
If a player is selfish enough to want to win or be challenging for all the top honours fine, go with the trophy obsessed Guardiola. If you care about the most important things in life and what you can buy with it, get yourself a fat oily leech instead.
 
It really is quite interesting how these stories attacking Pep are popping up. There was another one on transfermarkt.de on Friday. They quote an interview by Gerard Pique with a platform called The Players Tribune (never heard of it, never visited it) where he is criticising Pep for giving him an extremely hard time in 2012.

Does this (dare I say?) campaign perhaps mean we are approaching the deciding part of the Champions League and they are afraid of us?
 
bluetonium said:
Speaks volumes that Raiola will go to the media to moan about such stuff, don't ever remember pep having a go at a current or former player, other than to say they are capable of more and it's his duty to help them, that is as close as he gets to criticism of his own.

All the agent has done here is make any players hopeful of playing for pep in the future less likely to want Raiola representing them. I think the lure of playing for pep is probably more than the lure of having an agent who holds clubs to ransom for the sake of his client. For some players least.

And for what? Because city will no longer compete to push up agent fees and player wages and thus are reducing his own power in the game? Good, shows our long term plan is working. Not that we even have to with egghead Woodward outbidding himself every ten seconds.

City, ruining agents' big paydays since we moved to phase 2.
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And for those that it's not, we don't really want them here
 
SebastianBlue said:
If any one would like some cognitive fitness context for Raiola’s comments:

'Pogba was a cheap player!' - Raiola reveals how Man Utd saved €100m on transfer
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“Pogba was a cheap player. He had a clause in his contract that said he alone – and not Juventus - was allowed to decide where he was going to play next season.

“They couldn’t decide for him. The player must always stay in control. Juventus could have sold him for €200m to Real Madrid – so Manchester United actually saved themselves €100m.”
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Says a lot about how he thinks, slavery is illegal so no clause exists that would have allowed Juventus to force any player to accept any transfer.
 
squirtyflower said:
Smacks of Raiola, knowing that united want to offload Pogba, is trying to drum up a higher price so he and the scum receive more than he's worth.
If United don't get their money back it will stymie their spending plans.
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I suppose someone will be stupid enough to stump up another 90 million for the walking haircut advert.
 
SebastianBlue said:
Apologise in advance for the length my response but this is a subject for which I have a great interest.

The problem is that they aren’t even glorified accountants (which would at least be respectable): they are really the equivalent to snake oil salesmen, only they peddle human beings, making their prognostications and outlandish schemes to get rich (on the backs of their clients successes or failures) all the more detestable. Most agents (I’ve spent time with a few) don’t really care about the career outcomes of their clients beyond the impact on their bottom line. Some NGOs class them as human traffickers, which is absolutely the case with some operating in Africa, South America, and Asia, and not far from the truth for those plying their “trade” in the more established footballing corners of the world.

I’ve always said that if an agent dislikes something or someone it is almost always for one of two reasons (which one should be proud of):

1) They have been beaten at their own “game” (usually losing money and/or access in the process)

or

2) An entity exposes the “game” they are playing (also often leading to the loss of money and/or access)

Now, the “game” they are playing is a matter of livelihood (and, in more rare cases, literally life or death) for their clients, but most agents do not frame their work that way. The fact that we allow this professional practice, without placing strict, universal licensing and fiduciary requirements for entry, is abhorrent and one of the many things wrong with the modern game.

Here are just a few articles about the rampant exploitation related to agent and “agency” involvement in football, for which their are accounts Raiola has participated (directly and indirectly) through dodgy gladhanding and opaque memoranda of understanding with various entities operating in the developing world.

http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1609951/young-african-footballers-being-exploited

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/jan/06/newsstory.sport4

https://www.sundaypost.com/news/sco...mising-young-footballers-exploited-by-agents/

I agree that agents—in their current form—should be banned from the game. But, unfortunately, the money they generate (a word I use loosely) has found its slimy way into most governing and regulatory bodies, so reform and/or dissolution is unlikely.
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They must have some financial qualifications for the finer details of a contract surely, or do they employ someone else for that?
 
Some good comments at the bottom of that piece.
 
paulchapo said:
They must have some financial qualifications for the finer details of a contract surely, or do they employ someone else for that?
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The majority of agents have very little training in business management, finance, or legal affairs. As @aguero93:20 said, most outsource those “client services” to accountants, business managers, clerks, and lawyers.

With very few exceptions, agents are really just curators of relationships/access. The only real “value” (again, I use that word loosely) they create is via establishing and maintaining contacts with decision makers in the footballing world. Even that role is suspect, as often agents merely capitalise on the groundwork of other people in legitimate roles (like coachs, managers, support staff, lawyers, family members, and, of course, the players themselves) have already laid. Being a successful agent is often based entirely on either putting in work on one or two positive deals or being very fortunate to fall into a positive situation or two, then riding that cache (on the back of other’s substantial efforts) for the remainder of their career (a la Raiola).

You can guess my opinion of agents.
 
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