The Raiola Effect

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)