The Premier League season kicks off tomorrow evening with Leicester City’s visit to Old Trafford but Manchester United’s manager has other things on his mind right now.
According to The Times Jose Mourinho is “becoming increasingly concerned by the damage that he feels the agent Mino Raiola is doing”. He’s not alone.
The paper says that his disquiet is shared by members of the club’s board, who believe Raiola has been “hawking his star client, Paul Pogba, around Europe since the World Cup”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
Cashing in
The French midfielder was at the heart of his country’s triumph in Russia and apparently Raiola is looking to cash in on Pogba’s reputation, attracting interest from Barcelona and Juventus.
United are adamant that Pogba will not be sold, either before the British transfer deadline of 5pm today, or before the end of the European deadline on 31 August.
Meddling
Nonetheless, says the Times, Raiola’s “meddling” has been a contributory factor in United’s disruptive pre-season campaign in which Mourinho has cut a disgruntled figure.
The paper alleges that Mourinho and his staff “believe that Raiola is not acting in Pogba’s best interests by trying to move the midfielder on”, and is instead motivated by personal gain having “raked in millions of pounds in fees from bringing six players to the club in recent years”.
Raiola is said to have earned £41m from Pogba’s then world-record £89m transfer from Juventus to Old Trafford in 2016. He also has on his books the United pair of Romelu Lukaku and Sergio Romero.
Difficult campaign
The other source of concern for Mourinho is United’s failure to land a top-class defender this month. He believes the club faces a “difficult campaign” unless their defence is bolstered, but attempts to sign Harry Maguire, Toby Alderweireld, Jerome Boateng and Yerry Mina have all proved fruitless.
But the Daily Mail says Mourinho hasn’t given up hope of landing a defender and will today make a move for Chelsea’s Kurt Zouma, who arrived at Stamford Bridge when Mourinho was in charge in 2014.
