Pranav Nair
Mino Raiola dismisses claims that he sabotaged Manchester United season
Speaking to BBC Sport (h/t The Daily Mail), Superagent Mino Raiola has dismissed the notion that his comments regarding Paul Pogba have unsettled Manchester United.
Raiola opened up on his client’s future on the eve of United’s do or die Champions League fixture against RB Leipzig. While his revelations may not have surprised many, the timing of it raised quite a few eyebrows.
United eventually lost the match 3-2 and were dumped out of Europe’s premier competition. Raiola meanwhile is adamant that his comments have done little to impact both Pogba and United’s performances.
“I just expressed an opinion, I didn’t want to cause a problem.”
Raiola believes all he did was voice his opinion and was not looking to cause any problems. He went on to state that the run the club had following his revelations proves such allegations wrong.
“The opinion was a very simple one, I don’t think it destabilised anybody because they had a fantastic run, they were first in the league for a period, so that’s all bulls**t.”
The superagent also went on to sarcastically add that his statements had little power over elite performers such as Pogba and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. If he really did hold that sort of power, it would be more self-evident.
“A player of 27, a big player like Pogba or Solskjaer, who has won everything in his life, really get destabilised by what Mino Raiola says? Wow, if I had this power FIFA wouldn’t exist anymore, that’s for sure.”
A positive impact?
While one can argue over the impact Raiola’s comments have had, none can argue that Pogba has since emerged as a better player.
Whether it is directly attributed to the comments or not, the Frenchman levelled up almost instantly and started dropping one match-winning performance after another.
One could argue that Raiola has, if anything, perked up our fortunes by his comments.
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Raiola is one of the game’s foremost agents and represents some of the biggest names in the sport.
When he talks, for better or worse, it gathers traction from the media. It is not new for him to shoot his mouth and United should do well to focus on their own affairs than worry about what Raiola has to say.
