Man Utd have moral high ground over Raiola but it's an argument they can't win

Maybe the irony was lost on Mino Raiola, who was too busy arguing with former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan live on national radio to realise the juxtaposition of his words.

The 'super agent' was on talkSPORT on Tuesday morning to explain his social media criticism of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer from the evening before and began by insisting the Manchester United manager was "out of line". In between his frustrations at Jordan's rants against agents and his disappointment in Jim White's questioning, Raiola would return to that theme.

"I've never spoken about Ole in the papers or the press, he only speaks about me, whether it's about Haaland or Pogba, he talks about me, I don't talk about him," Raiola said, on national radio, while talking about Solskjaer.

It's starting to resemble a scene that would be best enacted on a school playground but there's no doubt United are holding the moral high ground here. Raiola took offence to Solskjaer's comments on Friday that "Paul is our player, not Mino's", when the United boss responded to another interview Raiola - who also told talkSPORT with another dose of irony that "it's not about me" - did when he mentioned Pogba's interest in Italy.

They're hardly inflammatory comments from Solskjaer, but they provoked a furious response from Raiola on social media where he suggested Solskjaer might have been claiming that Pogba was his "PRISONER" (capital his own).

So after beating Chelsea 2-0 at Stamford Bridge Solskjaer was again asked about Raiola. He must be sick of the subject. There will be more to come after Raiola, publicity shy by his own accounts, continued the feud on Tuesday.

The problem for Solskjaer and United is that being morally right rarely does you many favours in football, especially when it comes to the shark-infested waters of the transfer market.

This particular ongoing spat is almost certainly going to end with Pogba leaving United this summer. That's the outcome Raiola is clearly pushing for, even if he insists otherwise, and given the soap opera that has developed around it, none of it the fault of the agent, of course, then it might well be looked at as increasingly the best option for United.

But while it might make life a little easier in the short-term, United and Raiola simply can't keep ignoring each other. It doesn't particularly benefit either party, but it could be especially damaging to United.

This is a club that expects to be busy in the transfer market for the next couple of years, continuing Solskjaer's "rebuild", and at some point they will almost certainly be interested in signing a Raiola client, just as they were in January when Erling Haaland moved to Borussia Dortmund and the Bundesliga instead of Old Trafford.

It's not like United are falling out with a low-key agent here, this is one of the game's most powerful deal brokers. It's understandable that United don't particularly like how he's going about his business with the club at the moment, but unfortunately agents tend to hold the power when it comes to making the transfer market spin. It's not sustainable for a club the size of United to go through a prolonged falling out with an agent as influential as Raiola.

But disputes can quickly be forgotten about in football. If Pogba moves on this summer it may all be considered water under the bridge, ancient history. Raiola is unlikely to take a stance against dealing with United again given, one day soon, his next pay cheque could well be coming from Old Trafford.

And while United might quite like the idea of never having to do business with him again after the distractions of this season, it's unlikely they will be that lucky.

Solskjaer and United have handled the situation well this season, but in modern football there's little chance you will come out on top long-term when going toe-to-toe with one of the game's biggest agents.