When we hear “something wicked this way comes,” there is
fear. But something far bigger and far more wicked is slinking into Casa Milan.
And when I say bigger, I mean 212 lbs. bigger. I speak of course of the dark
evil that is Mino Raiola. Never content to have one or maybe two Milan players,
he seems hell bent on taking over the entire squad. With the waiting for Ibra
and some very important contract renewals, he is not to be taken lightly (no
pun intended.)
 |
| "Yes, I'd like 4 large pizzas. And hurry up or I'll sell your favorite players" |
Raiola could have made pizza at his family’s pizzeria, only
he apparently chose to eat it all instead. So he figured out how to be the
biggest and richest leech and see how many players’ careers he can destroy
while making himself as much money as humanly possible. He doesn’t worry about
his players, all that matters is his big fat
paycheck.
The worrying thing is that with just a few changes,
suddenly, he is poised to own about as much of the Milan squad as Yonghong Li
did, or at least the same percentage of players. We know all too well that
he is employed
by Gigio Donnarumma. We also know that Gigio is up for a contract
renewal, as his contract is up in 2021.
 |
| Aren't there laws about exploiting children? |
Then there is Bonaventura, whose contract is up in June, and
will also need to negotiate a new contract. Romagnoli also notably switched to
Raiola this year, although he still has two years on his current contract.
However, he is not only an important player, but our captain.
Then there is the Suso debacle. Not happy with not getting
a contract extension so far, Suso fired his longtime agent, Lucci, last month. Rumors
said he was also going to hire Raiola, and there were one or two fleeting
reports that he had, although I can find no definitive evidence. However he,
too, has two years on his contract.
 |
| Is Jack welcoming Suso to "the family"? |
Additionally, Milan are trying to re-sign Ibrahimovic as a
free agent. And guess who his agent is? That’s right, the owner of Al Capone’s
Miami villa, Mino Raiola. Even Ibrahimovic described him as “a little bit
mafia.”
What all this means for Milan is that Raiola is the agent
for the core of our team. The players we need most for consistency and
leadership. Just when we thought that we were finally getting some stability
and consistency, here is this shameless, unscrupulous agent controlling the
core of our team. Mirabelli recently said that he had seen the documents to
prove that Raiola had been paid over €100 million in agent fees. Although he
also believed Yonghong Li was the real deal and had the money he said he did,
so take that one with a grain of salt.
 |
| Raiola probably owns the little ones, too |
One cannot help but believe that Raiola will take this team
for whatever he can get, at the very least inflating our wages, if not taking
his players to other teams. (Transfers are how he makes the most money.) Despite having wriggled out of a ban earlier this year, there are laws coming to limit the paychecks of leeches like Raiola, which is all the more reason for him to exploit Milan now. Credit
to Maldini, Boban, and Massara, they are not outwardly panicking or driving the
media into a feeding frenzy like Mirabelli did. Especially with Bonaventura,
whose contract will need to be renewed in the coming months.
I do trust in Maldini and Boban to deal with Raiola, it will
be very much a battle of good vs. evil. Unfortunately, I also trust that if he demands too
much, they will let our players walk, and that frightens me. Their job is to
lower the wage bill, and here there are all of these Raiola players coming to
ask for a big fat paycheck. It’s difficult to see this ending well, honestly.
That constant fear, having this big fat Mafioso guy holding our team hostage,
is the opposite of what this team needs right now. But that is, unfortunately,
the Raiola Effect.
This post inspired by the music of NIN’s
“Hurt”
Our next match is
Serie A Week 16
Milan vs. Sassuolo
Sunday, December
15 • 15:00 CET (9am EST)