NO.
The fans aren't letting the players do that any more - they have gilded the lily for decades pretending to be all innocent and that its just the agent doing their thing.
A player should be charged under those association laws just for being in the same room as Ayoub let alone appointing him as their agent. He has such a dubious history.
Ayoub isn't damaging his own reputation (which has been trash since the Brad Murray and Ryan Tandy days) he is damaging Gutherson's reputation.
I think you're reading way too much into things.
Having an agent declare, "My client is worth $X - pay up!" doesn't damage the player's reputation, because most people simply know that it is what agents do.
Gutherson believes he can get more, so he has instructed his manager to do that for him.
Football players are not saints who represent clubs out of the goodness of their hearts - they are short-term mercenaries, out to make as much money as possible throughout a ten (or fifteen, if you're lucky) year career.
All this has really shown is that Gutherson is a slave to the dollar - trying to squeeze every last dollar out of a deal doesn't make him a dickhead.