Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel believes the club has finally taken a massive step backward in the right direction after the appointment of Xabi Alonso.
John Obi Mikel has been vocal about the chaotic leadership at Chelsea, consistently hammering BlueCo for their volatile management strategy. Before welcoming the board’s recent willingness to listen and adapt, Mikel had expressed deep frustration over the club taking “five steps backwards”.
His anger was particularly directed at the decision to appoint Liam Rosenior in January. Mikel openly criticised the hire as a massive mistake, claiming Rosenior lacked the ultimate authority and cohesion needed to lead the dressing room.
For Mikel, that entire chapter was proof that the owners were treating the club like a failed sporting experiment, though he is relieved they have finally ditched the head coach model for Xabi Alonso.
What is ONE law you would change or introduce in football?👀
Stop the clock rather than additional time like in Rugby!
Marc Clattenburg on Marc Cucurella incident during Spurs vs Chelsea
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John Obi Mikel likes the change in strategy from the Chelsea owners
In a surprise turn of events, John Obi Mikel likes what he’s seeing from the Chelsea owners in terms of the changes they appear to be making to help satisfy Xabi Alonso.
He had this to say on the Obi One podcast.
“Glad to see that the owners, the sporting directors, the people that are in charge of the football club are willing to make changes, they’re willing to listen when it’s not going right, they’re willing to make changes.
“We’ve talked about it. Forget about these coaches, coaches here, there, coaches. No, what we need, and what we’ve always had, was managers, a manager that can come in, who decides the players that I want, the players that I want out, that’s what we’ve got now.
“A manager, so that title has been changed from coach to manager, which is good news.”
Does Liam Delap deserve a chance under Xabi Alonso?🤔
Perhaps he can work his magic on him!
Liam Delap's Chelsea stats against Tottenham
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Seeing Xabi Alonso at Chelsea delights John Obi Mikel
John Obi Mikel came across as quite surprised that Chelsea have even managed to lure Alonso to Stamford Bridge, citing perhaps he wants to recreate the journey he had at Bayer Leverkusen.
“I’m so glad, I’m happy that Xabi Alonso has come to the football club. I think he’s a brilliant manager. I think he’s a young, talented manager.
“We see what he did with Leverkusen, where they went unbeaten, and broke that chain of Bayern Munich winning the league in the Bundesliga year in, year out. He managed to do that with his Leverkusen side playing absolutely fantastic football.
“He’s also student of Pep Guardiola as well, the way he plays the game, the way he wants to dominate the game, he wants to play on the front foot, attack, press high, and that’s what we want, that’s what we want to see, because we have the talent, we have the players, we have the potential to do that.”
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