Chelsea should learn from Pep Guardiola’s icy dismissal of Mino Raiola

Chelsea do not need any more help generating discord within the club, particularly around transfers. They should steer clear of anyone tied to Mino Raiola, no matter how high the profile or prospects of the player involved.

Once again, you could almost feel sorry for Manchester United. Almost. Because once again, they knew exactly what they were getting into. They hired Jose Mourinho, inviting upon themselves everything that goes along with him. United are now learning another facet of Mourinho’s drama, one not unique to him but often part of the package, although one Chelsea somehow remarkably avoided.

Mino Raiola is using Pep Guardiola to sow more acrimony within Old Trafford. Raiola and Guardiola are in no way friends. Raiola has called Guardiola an “absolute zero,” a “coward” and a “dog.” But enmity has never stood in the way of usefulness.

Guardiola revealed in his press conference on Friday how Raiola offered Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba to Guardiola in January. In relating the offer he spat back all of Raiola’s insults. Guardiola said Raiola must “respect the dogs” by not comparing the friendly beasts to a ne’er-do-well manager like him. He called himself a dog many times while expressing his shock (shock!) that Raiola would offer him these two United players. And he conclued by saying:

"I am not a good guy. I am not a good guy. He deserves his players to play with better guys. But, he knows as well I am a top manager. Thank you. – The Telegraph"

This is exactly how managers should respond to Raiola. If Raiola ever turns his attention on Chelsea, they should imitate Pep Guardiola precisely and add some sarcasm of their own.

Mino Raiola created a win-win situation for himself by approaching Guardiola about Mkhitaryan and Pogba in January. If Manchester City took the bait, Raiola would recieve yet another massive fee. If not, at some point the story would leak out, Raiola’s clients would become suspicious of Manchester United and demand a move themselves. Again resulting in yet another massive fee.

This is Raiola’s M.O. Move one of your clients to a new club for a record or near-record fee. Wait a year or two. Move them again. Sometimes the process needs a little enhancement. Mobster’s houses don’t stay on the market very long. When Raiola is impatient, a few words to the player, the press, a friendly manager (often Jose Mourinho) or a despised manager (Guardiola) can speed things along.

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Manchester United have been a hilariously compliant mark for Raiola. Ed Woodward would bring his checkbook to a gun fight. Whenever Chelsea fans – or even Antonio Conte – complain about the club not spending enough in the transfer market, they should look at Woodward as the other extreme. Every time United buys a Raiola player, Raiola wins. Every time United sells a Raiola player, Raiola wins. Every time United wins, well that doesn’t help Raiola at all so he has to gin up a new transfer.

Two of Raiola’s clients have been in Chelsea’s transfer rumour mill: Marco Verratti and Gianluigi Donnarumma. Neither are on the target list now. Verratti is too expensive and Paris Saint-Germain have no reason to part with him. Donnarumma’s star has waned a bit at AC Milan, as much as for his forgivable goalkeeping mistakes as a 19-year old as for his less-forgivable antics about the club. Chelsea have better options in-house and on the market than Donnarumma.

This is the ideal situation: no prospect of having to deal with Mino Raiola. If the Blues bought one of his players, within a year or two they would be in a whole new world of controversy. Compared to dealing with Raiola, employing Jose Mourinho and negotiating with Aurelio de Laurentiis is a cool stroll on the beach.

Nothing a player brings to the pitch – and, arguably, Raiola’s clients at United have grossly underperformed – is worth everything Raiola brings to the situation.

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Mino Raiola has used Manchester United to make a lot of money off of Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He has not yet come knocking on Chelsea’s door yet. If he does, Pep Guardiola showed Chelsea how to respond.