Romelu Lukaku fired his agent over a failed transfer to Chelsea. A different reality could have been present for Chelsea had he not been tricked.
Transfers should, theoretically, be between three parties: the selling club, the buying club, and the player. That is all complicated enough as it is without adding on another party in the player’s agent.
Agents are there to take a responsibility off the players. But they also frequently get paid if their player moves clubs. So they have an intensive, completely separate from football, to see their player go to a club willing to pay them more money.
This does not take the player’s choice completely out of the equation but agents have strong control over what their players know and do not know. They can be gatekeepers of information as was allegedly the case between Romelu Lukaku and Mino Raiola. That particular saga hints at an interesting alternative timeline that Chelsea could have found themselves in.
Go back in time to when Diego Costa wanted to leave Chelsea by any means necessary and then pretended to be offended when Antonio Conte confirmed his wish via text. The Blues needed a new striker. Different sources go back and forth over Michael Emenalo’s choice and Antonio Conte’s choice, but one was always said to prefer Alvaro Morata and the other Romelu Lukaku.
At this time, Lukaku was leaving Everton by any means necessary. Now the idea at the time was that Paul Pogba persuaded him to join Manchester United. But Lukaku would eventually fire Raiola over the sage due to his role in pushing a move towards United when Lukaku really (allegedly) wanted Chelsea.
Now, Lukaku still had to sign with United himself. That part cannot be forgotten. But the implication is that he did so under false pretenses due to his agent. Had Raiola been open with information, it is very likely that Lukaku could have become a Chelsea player and Morata could have gone to United.
It is important to remember that Lukaku was not the player then that he is now (time with Jose Mourinho seems to do that). But Antonio Conte with a Premier League ready striker from the go could have changed his fate as well as the club’s last season. Oliver Giroud likely would never have joined because he may not have needed to. Maurizio Sarri may not have joined Chelsea because Lukaku could have been the missing piece that Conte needed.
It is hard to say exactly what could have been different had Lukaku transferred to Chelsea. But agents get involved in transfers as a hidden, guiding force for their own ends. While a transfer may not make sense on paper, there is usually an agent behind the scenes pushing their own ends.
Agents do not absolve the players of blame in their decisions but they do push them in one direction or another. And once a club is in with an agent, they may find themselves trapped in a transfer cycle with their players. Agents have far too much power in the game and this saga shows just that and shows how different things could have been.