Football agents confesses to doing his job, playing clubs off against each other for Gabigol

Chelsea were but fringe players in the Gabigol sweepstakes this summer, with the highly promising Brazilian striker eventually agreeing a move to Inter Milan, rejecting the likes of Juventus, Atletico Madrid, and Leicester City along the way.

There were some stray rumors of Chelsea looking to negotiate with the then teenager's representatives, but as it turned out, we were probably much more keen on his club teammate Thiago Maia instead.  That transfer may yet happen at some point in the future, but Gabigol's off to Italy in a €29.5m deal.

"We had proposals for the lad from Inter, Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Leicester. Thanks to these situations we were able to better negotiate his salary with Inter, so he'll be one of the best-paid players at the club."

"His net monthly wage packet will be circa €380,000, which is almost how much he earns per year at Santos. Inter will actually pay €460,000 before taxes."

-Wagner Ribeiro; source: Yahoo Esportes via Football Italia

If there's any doubt as to why players from Brazil head off to Europe, the possibility of earning as much in a month as they'd make in a year should be more than enough reason.

The headlines are presenting this as the agent "fleecing" Inter, but he's just doing his job.  Agents are the only clear and consistent winners in transfer windows (right, Mino Raiola?) and in modern football, it's increasingly important to forge good personal relationships between clubs and agents — Chelsea reaped the rewards on transfer deadline day with the David Luiz deal, for example.

Wrote this less than two weeks ago on why Chelsea's Miazga and Pato deals would eventually pay off. #kia #luiz pic.twitter.com/fDuDUHL3iH

— Jake Cohen (@JakeFCohen) August 31, 2016

Welcome to the new reality.