Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli is in the news recently for his reported parting ways with his long-time representative. He is now being courted by several super-agents who are trying to lure Alli to their camp by promising a move to Manchester United or Real Madrid.
According to The Mirror, super-agents Mino Raiola and Jorge Mendes are leading a long list of agencies trying to catch the attention of the Tottenham superstar. The promises are said to be a part of their charming exercise. Both agents hold control over some of the biggest names in European football and have considerable influence on both the clubs in discussion – Manchester United and Real Madrid.
Raiola handles several Red Devils stars such as Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. All the moves for these players were handled by Raiola, who has promised Alli that a similar transfer is possible should he decide to leave White Hart Lane.
Raiola’s power in influencing Gianluigi Donnarumma for a move away from San Siro this summer is well-documented although, in the end, the player decided to stay put and extend his contract.
Jorge Mendes is no less and his roster is top-drawer stuff too. His links with Real Madrid are well known as he handles Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez. He also is closely linked with United too, being the agent of the Red Devils manager Jose Mourinho and star player David de Gea.
Will Alli decide to jump ships after changing agents? The England international midfielder has been on a steep improvement curve ever since he joined from MK Dons as an unknown teenager.
He is currently on an estimated salary of £50,000 to £60,000-a-week but is discussing a fee rise. The improved contract would see him move on par with the club’s top earners such as Harry Kane and Hugo Lloris.
However, that would still be pale in comparison to astronomical wages that the clients of Mendes and Raiola command. Both the agents feel that if the player is interested in a move away from Tottenham, they could engineer it very easily.
Will Dele Alli choose to rock the boat?
https://youtu.be/iL9jlH65Tfg
What a joke. Only they could arrange for him to move to United or Real…but it would be very easy to facilitate that move if he wanted it. That’s a contradiction in terms.
The whole thing is a disgrace. These terms on the face of football are setting about unsettling and tapping up a player because they have decided he is too good for his present club…who is trying to establish itself as a team that can compete with these teams. It negated the very purpose of team building just so these parasites can plan to augment their income from more money ripped out of football.
I’m not hostile to the concept of agents as such – I understand that not all footballers are intelligent/educated enough to understand all of the financials, rigmarole and small print in contracts, for instance. But these “super agents” seem to exist solely to latch on to the brightest young talent so that they can make a very lucrative leaving engineering moves to the wealthiest clubs – and thus preserving the status quo and stifling the type of competitive spirit that comes from astute team-building.
And what has Dele said publicly? He’s said he is very happy where he is. He’s said that he is at the perfect place to develop as a football. And when an interviewer somewhat helpfully [sic.] suggested he could move elsewhere, Dele laughed and said “yeah, or I could just stay here my whole career.” How long before this attitude changes if one of these leaches gets his class into him?
And perhaps the most worrying aspect of this is the persistent linking with United as the sole club mentioned from England. We all know that Can Levy has point-blank refused to do business with them ever since their disgraceful behaviour over Berbatov. If one of these agents attempts to force Levy to sell specifically to United I can foresee World War Three. If there is even a hint that United instigated one of these agents to get his hooks into Dele just to force Tottenham to sell to United, something I wouldn’t put past Woodward in his determination to prove that under him United can still get anything they want, I could see it getting Apocalyptic! We can’t allow ourselves to be bullied but we also have to remember there is a player in there whose career could be seriously disrupted.