Reports today that Manchester United scouts went back to Jose Mourinho with poor reports on Arsenal’s record signing Alexandre Lacazette, which in turn lead to Jose Mourinho rejecting a deal for him and instead signing Romelu Lukaku.

What a load of old bollocks. There is one reason, and one reason only, why Mourinho went for Lukaku instead of Lacazette.

Mino Raiola.

Riola is the Italian-born Dutch football agent who has become very rich in recent years moving his clients around Europe, and pocketing himself millions in the process.

He has become Jose Mourinho’s agent of choice in the last 12 months, with him being involved in the Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Romelu Lukaku deals.

The Paul Pogba deal alone will potentially make Raiola £41.39m.

£22.8m of this has come from Juventus as part of the £89m fee paid by Manchester United. Whilst this is paid by Juventus, Manchester United would have had to have paid the Italian side an additional £22.8m as part of the transfer fee to cover this.

Had Juventus not had to have paid such a big amount to Raiola, Manchester United would not have had to have paid so much to them.

You then have 5 future instalments of £16.39m paid to Raiola. It is not clear if Manhcester United are paying for these direct, or through Juventus. But ultimately Manchester United will be footing the bill.

Finally Paul Pogba is set to make a payment of £2.2m to his agent. Once again this would come from the signing on fee that Manchester United have paid to Paul Pogba. Like the Juventus deal, Manchester United have had to pay Pogba more to cover what he pays to Raiola.

One way or another, Manchester United have paid £41.39m to Mino Raiola.

In the 2016/17 season, Manchester United paid £19m to agents.

Last season they signed Ibrahimovic, Pogba, Mkhitaryan & Eric Bailly. Only Bailly was no a Raiola client.

Now Pogba’s agents fees are outlined above. The only payment made direct from Manchester United to Raiola would be the first portion of the 5 instalments. If equally spread over the 5 years, this would be £3.27m. That then leaves £15.72m across the other 3 players.

Split this equally – and I am sure this will be underestimating – Manchester United would have paid around £11m of the £19m to Raiola for Ibrahimovic and Mkhitaryan.

We then come to Romelu Lukaku.

Reports earlier in the summer were that he was on the way to Chelsea. But the London side stalled on the deal after they were unwilling to pay the agents fee that Raiola was demanding. Manchester United then snuck in and did a deal. The agents fee was reported to be £12m.

So another £12m paid to Raiola this summer, on top of the £11m paid for Ibrahimovic and Mkhitaryan last summer. Add the £3.27m paid for Pogba, the £2.2m paid “by” Pogba, and the £22.8m paid “by” Juventus, Manchester United have paid £51.27m to Mino Raiola since Jose Mourinho took over as manager.

£51.27m. Let that sink in a little bit.

You have to wonder why Mourinho clearly favours a single agent, and a single agent who ends up pocketing so much of Manchester United’s money.

Jose Mourinho is currently facing tax fraud charges in Spain. Leaked documents suggested that Mourinho’s own agent, Jorge Mendes was involved in a massive tax avoidance scheme with both Mourinho and Ronaldo accused of not paying taxes by using offshore accounts.

Alexandre Lacazette is not advised by Mino Raiola. If Raiola was Lacazette’s agent, you feel he would have joined Manchester United.

Raiola is Mourinho’s agent of choice at the moment.

Keenos

Follow @KeenosAFC