Adrien Rabiot’s Collapsed Manchester United Deal Leaves Juventus In A Bad Situation

It’s fair to say Veronique Rabiot more than lived up to her billing during negotiations with Manchester United.

The mother of Adrien has long since earned a reputation for being a hard-nosed and fierce negotiator. Given that her only client is her son, Veronique’s chief concern is simply about getting the best deal and circumstances possible for her boy, and won’t be dissuaded otherwise. Protective in the way most mothers are, her interference has caused friction throughout Rabiot’s career, both at club and international level.

The exception to that rule has been during Rabiot’s time at Juventus — until now.

Signing for the club in the summer of 2019 as a free agent, Rabiot has been a mainstay in the Juve midfield ever since, much to the bewilderment of supporters, who can’t work out what exactly he thrives at. Rabiot is neither fast nor slow; neither an attacking midfielder nor a defensive one; neither technically poor nor the second coming of Andrea Pirlo. Rabiot has always just been there, perpetually in second gear and occasionally flickering into life, like his wonder goal against Milan during the first lockdown.

The collapse of Rabiot’s move from Juve to United has left the Italian side in a difficult situation. A deal had long-since been agreed between the two clubs, with United handing over around £15m ($18m). Juve likely couldn’t believe their luck that someone was willing to pay that much for Rabiot considering his three seasons of outstanding mediocrity, and had earmarked that money to sign Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Leandro Paredes as his replacement, with a personal terms thought to being agreed between the player and Juve.

Yet it’s been reported that Mama Rabiot’s demands were such that even United, a club who thought it perfectly normal to pay £80m ($96m) for Harry Maguire without flinching, refused to acquiesce to her demands.

A report in Italy suggests that Veronique demanded somewhere in the region between €8.5-10m ($8.6-10m) in wages — net — plus bonuses for each season he played at Old Trafford. In addition, she demanded another €8-10m for herself ($8.1-10m) in commission fees for brokering the deal.

Rabiot currently earns €7m ($7.1m) net-per-season at Juve, now viewed as the nadir of Fabio Paratici’s insane recklessness in his short-lived reign as chief sporting director. With United out of the Champions League this season, Veronique no doubt wanted extra financial compensation for the effrontery of her client not playing top-level European football (even if Juve barely get past the group stage in the competition these days).

United, sensibly, pulled the plug. Yet their decision has now left Juve in a situation where they still have an unwanted player, with Max Allegri moving on from Rabiot, and the club lacking the money to sign his replacement, Paredes.

As highlighted in the very flattering victory over Sassuolo on the opening weekend, Juve look short on quality in midfield, and signing Paredes would’ve alleviated the problem, at least until the return of Paul Pogba.

Juve and Allegri are now faced with having two midfielders, with Arthur Melo the other one, that they don’t want and who are also on large contracts, thus making it difficult to move them on. Arthur had been close to a move to Valencia on a loan deal, but the two clubs couldn’t agree on salary percentages.

Whether Allegri will continue to use Rabiot in the aftermath of the collapsed United deal remains to be seen. Despite the sorry nature of Juve’s midfield, Rabiot has been so underwhelming in his three years in Turin that he wouldn’t improve it. Allegri would be wiser to give minutes to youth players like Nicolo Fagioli and Fabio Miretti than turn back to Rabiot.

Unless United suddenly change track and give in to Veronique’s demands, Rabiot is likely to see out the final year of his contract and leave for free in a year’s time. Yet given events this summer, there’s unlikely to be a queue of clubs banging at Veronique’s door wanting to negotiate.

Nobody wins from the situation, and with the transfer window chugging towards closure, how Juve and United rectify their perspective situations before then is anyone’s guess.