UNITED TAKEN IN BY RAIOLA’S BLUSTER

Manchester United’s rift with Mino raiola is blamed for a lot of disturbances around personnel lately. Paul Pogba’s unrest, the failure to sign erling haaland. raiola has recruited Jesse Lingard and tried to do the same with Marcus rashford. this information tumbles out, conveniently, as a reminder of the agent’s power. he wants United to know he has his tanks on their lawn. Yet so much of it is bluff and bluster. United seem no better but no worse without Pogba, which is more an indictment of the player than of them, and there is little raiola could do to make Lingard’s form any poorer. there is talk that raiola has been offering him around rival clubs but if he secures a decent price that might do United a favour. Lingard appears to have lost his way of late. as for haaland (right), even if raiola and United had been close, he would probably still have ended up at Borussia dortmund. haaland is 19. dortmund are a significant club, one with a history of bringing youth players through, but not in the highest echelons of europe’s elite. in other words, two years down the line they are sellers. and that is when raiola cashes in again, having agreed to take a share of the resale value. so haaland was never going to United — a club that would not offer raiola his future cut and wouldn’t want or need to sell if the young man was a success. that is no good for an agent. United could be a viable destination after this, mind, paying through the nose with raiola admirably setting aside his aversion if the price is right. he’s generous like that.