Mino Raiola was the story of the summer, getting a transfer for no fewer than three of his players to Manchester United, with Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrik Mkhitaryan all teaming up with José Mourinho at Old Trafford.
This now means the Dutch super agent has five clients in England, with United goalkeeper Sergio Romero and Everton’s Romelu Lukaku already plying their trade there.
While the former appears relatively comfortable being David De Gea’s backup, a lot of questions about the latter’s future are being asked, namely ‘Where will he play next season?’
Signing for Chelsea from Anderlecht in 2011 for just under £13m, the now 23-year-old striker had joined the club of his dreams.
However, things didn’t go too well, with Lukaku not getting many chances, and loans to West Brom and Everton followed, with the Toffees eventually spending £30m on him in 2014 to make the deal permanent.
Since then, the Belgium international has only gone from strength to strength, exemplified by his 16 goals in 24 league games this season.
With a contract running out in 2019, many see this summer as the perfect time for him to leave Everton and move to one of the elite clubs around Europe, where he would get regular Champions League football and consistent chances of winning silverware.
Lukaku himself admitted back in December that his dream is to win the Premier League, yet for a transfer to happen, ‘a few conditions’ need to be met first, including having a manager who believes in him.
A transfer last summer nearly materialised, but those in charge at Goodison Park managed to convince the player to stay, at least for another season, which the former Chelsea striker chose to do.
Less than a week ago, Ronald Koeman expressed his belief that Everton could convince Lukaku to stay the fact after Mino Raiola said back in December that a contract extension with the Toffees ‘was 99% done’.
Positive stuff.
However, let’s not forget that Lukaku’s agent knows exactly what he’s doing, and if he wants his player to move clubs, he will get it done one way or another.
Let’s take Henrikh Mkhitaryan, for example.
Dortmund were very reluctant to see their star go in the summer, but that was before Mino Raiola waded in and started overturning chairs during an argument with the Bundesliga side’s officials as he tried to force a move for his client.
Furthermore, even if a transfer is currently underway, the agent is very private, and rarely tells the press anything.
Even when everyone in the press had agreed Paul Pogba would be a Manchester United player last summer, Raiola was still going around Twitter telling everyone that journalists were parrots and the rumour surrounding his client was just ‘lots of bla, bla, bla’.
There is no deal done regarding Paul Pogba, lots of bla bla bla.
— Mino Raiola (@MinoRaiola) July 21, 2016
Everton fans might have been encouraged when he announced a renewal was close, but if Romelu Lukaku tells him he wants an exit from Goodison Park in the summer, or if Raiola gets wind of an elite European club he thinks his client would be perfect for being interested, rest assured, he’ll raise hell to get his way.
And who can blame him? After all, it’s his job.
