When Manchester United face Wolves on Saturday afternoon, eyes will inevitably turn to the directors’ box at around 2.55pm.
Will Jorge Mendes, for so long prominent at Old Trafford and now influential at Molineux, be in attendance?
Both team’s managers, Nuno and Jose Mourinho, are represented by the super agent, as are seven players, including David de Gea and Ruben Neves, reports the Manchester Evening News.
While Mendes has become a powerful figure as an adviser to Wolves ‘ top brass, the same cannot be said at United – where he now has just one client, De Gea, in the first-team squad.
Ironically, United have not been reliant on Mendes since one of his most high-profile employers, Mourinho, became manager. That was in stark contrast to what happened at Real Madrid when at one stage, six first-team regulars and the manager were all represented by him.
Was it any wonder that Mendes effectively set up camp at the club’s training ground? That has certainly not been the case at Carrington. Indeed, those Radamel Falcao and Angel Di Maria deals seem a lifetime ago.
Scanning Mendes’ most valuable clients list – Cristiano Ronaldo , James Rodriguez, Diego Costa, Ederson and Bernardo Silva – you can’t envisage any of them ever ending up at United.
Ed Woodward, the club’s executive vice-chairman, has instead come to rely on another super agent, Mino Raiola in recent years.
In one decision, he moved away from the man Sir Alex Ferguson hailed ‘the best agent I dealt with’ to a representative the Scot once described as a ‘s***bag’.
Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (twice) have all come through the door in the last two years. Another, Blaise Matuidi, had been lined up in case the complicated Pogba deal did not get over the line.
Even then, though, it has been noticeable how United have cooled relations with Raiola, too, in the last 12 months.
The club have instead started targeting a different profile of player. Players whose agents do not have as big a repuation. Faces you would not necessarily recognise.
Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof, Nemanja Matic, Fred, Diogo Dalot and Lee Grant are all represented by agents who never feel the need to go on the record and become the star themselves.
How many of the these players’ representatives can you name? That is the way it should be and how Woodward likes it.
Regardless of whether he is interested in one of their clients, Woodward maintains relationships with a sizable network of agents and regularly entertains them on match days.
They all have his mobile number and while Woodward has made some friends in that circle, it is telling he wants to share that burden with a technical director/director of football going forward.
For the first time in their 140-year history, United are looking to appoint a go-between to act as a conduit between the executive vice-chairman and head coach.
It is yet another example of the club moving away from the Ferguson model.
Mike Phelan, Eric Steele, Rene Meulensteen, Ryan Giggs,Tony Strudwick, Brian McClair, Paul McGuinness and Warren Joyce – all Ferguson men – have left the club since his retirement in 2013.
Consciously or not, there has also been a gradual move away from dealing with his favourite agent. Jorge Mendes.
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