John Obi Mikel established himself as a Chelsea legend for his performances in midfield, however his career could have gone very differently.
Mikel is now a passionate supporter of the Blues, and given the success the club had when he was a player he finds it hard accept standards slipping below that.
After the impact John Terry had on him as a leader, Mikel has called for more from Reece James in his role as captain of the club.
He is also used to a savage approach when it comes to managers, and believes Enzo Maresca would have been sacked already if Roman Abramovich was still running things.
‘Secret’ meeting with Jose Mourinho convinced John Obi Mikel to join Chelsea
The Nigerian’s admiration for Chelsea very nearly didn’t come around though, as he nearly enjoyed an illustrious career as a Manchester United player.
Despite never kicking a ball at Old Trafford, it looked as if Chelsea were going to miss out on one of their big transfer targets, something that was very rare at this time.
This was until Jose Mourinho stepped in. Mikel recalled on ‘Taking the Mikel’ that he secretly met with the Portuguese manager, who convinced him that he had to move to Chelsea.
He said: “When I came to London, I had a secret meeting with Jose, which I wasn’t supposed to. I came out of my apartment in London and I got into a car, it drove 2/3 miles away, dropped me off and said ‘get into that car’.
“They drove me somewhere else, I think there were about five cars before I got to this secret house where Jose was there waiting for me. That’s where he totally convinced me to come to the club.”
Mourinho won three Premier League titles across his two stints in West London, and is largely seen as one of the most succesful in Chelsea’s history.
He does not boast the best record as Blues manager though. Avram Grant has the best win rate of any permanent boss at Stamford Bridge.
Mikel a huge admirer of Jose Mourinho
Despite working under a number of top managers during his time at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho always takes the top spot as far as Mourinho is concerned.
Mikel believes Maresca can learn from Mourinho, with the two-time Champions League winning coach being famous for holding on to leads late on.
The pair shared a joke about Tottenham recently and the situation they find themselves in, with the departure of Mourinho something that didn’t go down well, coming just days before the EFL Cup final.
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