Paul Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola is happily back to his controversial tactics again.
Raiola, a key figure central in the earlier controversy regarding Paul Pogba and his future at Manchester United, has decided to stir up the hot pot again with his latest ascerbic remarks.
Speaking to The Athletic, Raiola coolly pushed the blame to Sir Alex Ferguson for Pogba’s departure from the club in 2012, saying that the latter did not have faith in the French forward. In his autobiography, the United doyen had identified Raiola as the perpetrator manipulating his charge, Pogba, into leaving Old Trafford. Needless to say, the superagent refuted the claims, saying that he in fact wanted the midfielder to remain at the club.
“When Ferguson criticised me, that was my biggest compliment anybody could give me,” Raiola told The Athletic.
“Ferguson is used to people coming in and [saying]: ‘Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir’.”
Pogba subsequently returned to Old Trafford for a club-record fee in 2016 but speculations since then regarding his future with the club have dominated the media headlines. Raiola in his self-defense said that the club owners, the Glazers, proved him right when Pogba was re-signed after Ferguson retired as manager in 2013.
“All I have to say that when Ferguson left Manchester United, the club’s owner [the Glazers], by buying back Paul Pogba, told me that I was right,” he added.
“Because I didn’t want to take Paul Pogba away. [Ferguson] didn’t believe in Paul Pogba.
“So when Ferguson says: ‘I don’t like him, it’s the biggest compliment that I could have. It’s like saying Sepp Blatter says: ‘I don’t like him’. Fantastic. I don’t care what Ferguson says.”
The highly-controlversial agent had again stirred up controversy in December when he told Tuttosport that Pogba’s stay at United was nearing its end. United then crashed out of the Champions League losing to RB Leipzig in the next game in which Pogba started from the bench.
When asked how his remarks are affecting Pogba’s relations with United management, Raiola’s response was that he does not care.
“I don’t give a f*ck if I never do another player with Manchester United,” he said. “I’m not in their hands.
“I’m independent. We have only one party that we take care of – our players. And as long as our players like us, you do what you have to do.”