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When it comes to football there are players, managers, supporters, owners and scouts. All are important and you hear about them all season long, but you don't hear as much about agents despite their playing as big of a role as anyone in the day-to-day football world. Because agents do a pretty good job of staying out of the spotlight it's tough to figure out exactly how much of an impact they have on each move, but the Luka Modric saga reeks of an ambitious and maybe not so well-intentioned agent.
There is no doubt that Modric would like to be playing for a club in the Champions League and he knows as well as us that he is woefully underpaid. Graham MacAree already broke down how Luka's agent failed him, but how much has he pushed this entire saga?
Luka was interested in a move to a Champions League team, but Spurs said they would not sell and that was that. It looked like he would give it another season and reevaluate things next summer. Maybe Spurs would be in the Champions League then. Maybe they would have a stadium deal done and able to adjust the wage scale. Whatever it was, it looked like Luka was back for another year.
Now Luka is upset and feels he was lied to (which he very well might have been). He also doesn't just want a Champions League move, he wants a move to Chelsea and Chelsea only. What changed in that time because it looked like Spurs and Modric wanted different things, but were on very good terms still?
The best guess is another party got involved and that's probably Luka's agent. By narrowing it down to one team, Chelsea, the transfer fee stays somewhat reasonable for the buying club. That leaves more money for the wages and it puts him int he club's good books.
There isn't any evidence that Luka's agent made this blow up, but something happened and the most logical thing is the intervention of the agent. It also doesn't necessarily mean that Luka's agent is wrong to do what he's done. While what is going on may not be Luka's style and the way he wanted things handled, his agent's job is to accomplish what his client wants. He's not trying to play fair and nice. He's trying to get his client what his client wants.
We'll see whether or not Luka's agent is successful, but most of this appears to be his doing so he'll also have bear the brunt of the blame if this all fails. Although, as Graham pointed out, he's already failed a couple times to this point. This entire saga may just be another poor move on his part.