Mikel John Obi

[The only place to be 11,313]

He had a bad game yesterday, but his image was further tarnished by how well Toure played, which doesn't make for a very fair reflection in my opinion. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though - he signed a new five year deal this season, and it's very unlikely he's going anywhere.

Honestly, that means fuck all. Why wouldn't the club sign him to a five year deal even if they wanted to sell him tomorrow? He has transfer value (although I think we'd be lucky to get more than £10 million) so you want to retain the possibility of cashing in for as long as possible.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

But that infers the player's decision to stay, and as Florent Malouda's case study has shown, it is the players who are the ultimate authority at this football club. He doesn't have to go anywhere, he can quite happily play out his contract and apart from terminating it at extreme expense, there is nothing the club can do if he doesn't want to go.

[Clevemayer 764]

The frustrating part is that he can be very good. If he was just a shit player then fair enough, you ain't got it son, go to Tottenham but when he is a genuine good player not giving his all, especially in a massive game, you'd think he'd get a slap or 2 to wake up. He can't be as tired as most of our players and he's not a baby any more. He's been here a while now, he needs to seriously look at himself.

Finally finally, you are right he can be as good as hell when he is on fire... but I can't stand his attitude and I wonder why no Manager has the balls to slap him in his face... the strange thing is... Mikel always plays like hell when his contract is due to expire... remember under carlo then last season and the beginning of this season, but this is not the way to go about for me...

he has all the skills really, but he doesn't use it, I'm absolutly sure if he was playing consistent everybody would cut his hands off to get him... period... but like he was going about things and like you've said his attitude that is terrible...

If mou was comeing back and slap him in his face, like when he drove while he was drunk, and then get banned to the reserves he would do better for sure...

I am not at the mikel hater bandwagon, and I really like him, he has world class skill, but the mentality of a child, and I've stated this on noumerus occasions...

the problem with others here is, they don't even aknowledge how good he is... and that annois me, he is as good as hell and he would put toure and bousquet in his pocket on his day, for sure...

the problem with mikel is he knows HOW GOOD he is, and some players can cope with this knowledge (lampsy and maka) and some can't...

[IliyaDamyanov 43]

till the end of the season -> Luiz - Lampard , Luiz - Ramires , Ramires - Lampard , Ramires - Oscar....in the centre

[Clevemayer 764]

till the end of the season -> Luiz - Lampard , Luiz - Ramires , Ramires - Lampard , Ramires - Oscar....in the centre

yeah because luiz and lampard where so brilliant in that midfield, get real... we need proper players there... if mikel doesn't get his mind sorted he can take a seat on the bench... we just need modric and as I've said so often, Oscar can be a great DLP, really...

[The only place to be 11,313]

But that infers the player's decision to stay, and as Florent Malouda's case study has shown, it is the players who are the ultimate authority at this football club. He doesn't have to go anywhere, he can quite happily play out his contract and apart from terminating it at extreme expense, there is nothing the club can do if he doesn't want to go.

I'm sure he could choose to spend 4 years in the reserves, wasting his peak playing years but even my opinion of him isn't so low that I'd think he'd do it.

He may well have a squad position next year anyway, but I think we need a real DM like Khedira to become a real force in England. I criticised Rami in the past, but he's put in some excellent shifts and never let us down. Mikel let us all down on Thursday and did nothing to rectify it yesterday.

I don't know if the character issues he has can be fixed, especially at his age.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Agree that he will more than likely stay and become a squad player. My defence of the player is that he is nowhere near as bad as what people make out, and as an out-and-out CDM he is the best option we have at present (although I definitely feel Mourinho/Grant/Hiddink's 4-3-3 or Ancelotti's system helped him massively). Definitely need a better option, but he isn't shit as many on here would presume. I'd also be happy to wager that the next manager - José or otherwise - will more than likely include him in their plans for the future. He's a very useful, and experienced, player to have, especially for big games. He was utterly awful yesterday though, totally dominated by Toure and Nasri.

[Kojo 4,676]

I'm by no means a mikel hater and rarely do I ever criticize him...but he was disappointingly poor today. Considering his number of appearances in comparison to the rest of the outfield players on that pitch, its almost inexcusable and borderline laughable that he can put out a display like that in such an important game. He's already taken quite a bit of stick so I won't yap on about this. What I will say is that if we're going to continue with this expansive system and if we're going to continue using hobbit size attacking players then it's imperative that we sign a defensive midfielder who understands that tackling isn't just a thing a DM does every 60 mins of so.

I mean...to have any type of defensive solidarity in an attacking system then surely your defensive midfielder needs to have one of the highest work rates in the team, no? Besides channeling opposition players to the flanks or areas they can't do much damage, a defensive mid also has to be quick to break up play, stay with runners, hassle opposition players.... otherwise your defenders will constantly be under siege.

Just take a look at Mikel here.....

Look at the gap between him and the defenders! Look at the number of man city players in front of him. I mean, really? Are you kidding me? Even oscar is ahead of him trying to get back. This is just shocking and has become all too common with mikel.

I said that in the match right after Nasri scored it, that Mikel was miles away, he may aswell of been playing striker.

I've also said this a thousand times this season that when you watch goals, especially counters Mikel is nowhere to be seen, and people say he's not to blame for it.

It doesn't matter who is to blame for it, just look at him, where is even the fucking passion to get his arse back there, worst covering I've ever seen.

[Kojo 4,676]

So everyone's on the same page now? Took long enough.

So what are the options? Do we sell him? Who would realistically put in a bid of more than £10 million?

Is he destined to be a squad player, because having seen his response to coming off the bench against Rubin Kazan I don't know if we can trust him to put in a shift.

In all fairness mate, It should be me saying this, I've been going on about Mikel since last season and saying he's not good enough for this team, even when 99 percent of the forum flamed me and called me a troll for it.

[Kojo 4,676]

He's just a lazy bastard. Comparing him and Toure yesterday considering they are supposed to be in the same mould playing in the same role, it was embarrassing. Toure is always 'motivated' and always puts in a great shift. Mikel just plays when he feels like it. It's annoying because he has shown just how good he can be. He's clearly got an attitude problem and i'm not just talking about his UEL comments (google it), seeing him just strolling back without a care in the world in a huge game when he's supposed to be the defensive shield... top cunt.

Ollie you couldn't be anymore wrong here, this is why Toure just isn't a DM.

Yeah sure yesterday he really turned up and played very well, but he's had at least 3 games against us where he just couldn't be arsed, and funny enough we won those games. 2-1 against City at the Bridge under AVB and Carlo just to name them off the top of my head.

He also cost Man City against Ajax twice, cost them no qualification in the CL really, he's a very lazy player with an awful attitude. That's his downfall, besides that he has unbelievable abillity, he really can do just about anything.

But yeah he's not really a DM anyway, he's more of an attacking player, he rotates a lot and stays up top.

[Clevemayer 764]

In all fairness mate, It should be me saying this, I've been going on about Mikel since last season and saying he's not good enough for this team, even when 99 percent of the forum flamed me and called me a troll for it.

you've been a troll because you just slate him for sometimes nothing, even if he has a good game... so plz...

now that you see that I CAN critisize mikel, you should ask you if all of US has been wrong, or if you may just had a go at him...

nobody told ya he was perfect (at least the majority didn't)...

he has a bad spell at the moment and his attitude has been critisized since hes been here at this club, but of course you don't know because you're not a fan for so long I recognize...

he has class and you don't admit that thats poor from you... and again... he is at a shit run... and there is a pattern when he plays well and when not and thats not OK by my standard of an player...

nontheless he has very good to outstanding skills you just act like he is an complete and utter morron, all I was saying to you is, if he was so useless he wouldn't be here anymore...

his behaveing is something the manager has to sort out imho...

he is a bit like ballotelli... but consistent wise a lot worse then him...

[Spike 12,049]

In all fairness mate, It should be me saying this, I've been going on about Mikel since last season and saying he's not good enough for this team, even when 99 percent of the forum flamed me and called me a troll for it.

TO be fair, Mikel put in a handful of very decent shifts last season... LAST SEASON. I can't believe what I'm seeing from him. I know what he is capable of and he hasn't even hit anywhere close to that this season.

[Kojo 4,676]

TO be fair, Mikel put in a handful of very decent shifts last season... LAST SEASON

Yeah he did, and I never said he was bad then, it was only in November when i started to see that Mikel just isn't ready for this team at all.

Then Di Matteo came in and he was good then (but come on who the fuck wasn't?) But even then my opinion never changed on Mikel, and It hasn't since.

The fact of the matter is, start of this season I said Mikel would dissapoint, WAS I WRONG? NO!

Ask Muzchap, even he can remember how much I got slated, Mikel has dissapointed this season, and even the majority don't like Mikel now. Mikel in my opinion proven that he wasn't Chelsea material when he couldn't flourish when Essien was ruled out for 6 months, it was his time to show what he can do and he couldn't do it. He still put the same damn inconsistent performances in, and the poor form just kept happening, It's not good enough at this level, and he's not even a young player either.

you've been a troll because you just slate him for sometimes nothing, even if he has a good game... so plz...

now that you see that I CAN critisize mikel, you should ask you if all of US has been wrong, or if you may just had a go at him...

nobody told ya he was perfect (at least the majority didn't)...

he has a bad spell at the moment and his attitude has been critisized since hes been here at this club, but of course you don't know because you're not a fan for so long I recognize...

he has class and you don't admit that thats poor from you... and again... he is at a shit run... and there is a pattern when he plays well and when not and thats not OK by my standard of an player...

nontheless he has very good to outstanding skills you just act like he is an complete and utter morron, all I was saying to you is, if he was so useless he wouldn't be here anymore...

his behaveing is something the manager has to sort out imho...

he is a bit like ballotelli... but consistent wise a lot worse then him...

I love how you answer this post but not my other one i sent you, look if you want an asnwer go read that, I said i exaggerate, if you don't like it then tough, that's who i am.

I wanted a proper DM in instead of Mikel, I actually really wanted us to get Cabaye and Tiote at the start of the season. Cabaye is one of the most underrated players in PL if you ask me, Tiote fantastic two seasons, this one he has been dreadful I'll admit, but he's had about a thousand injuries lets not forget.

[Strike 6,961]

Far from being under-rated, Mikel is the most overrated player in our squad. I don't think a decent midfield pivot will be over-run so many times in a season.

In the first half, Mikel made two poor passes resulting in continous City pressure. I wish I had a GIF of that because when I was watching I went like - "WTF? Mikel. Hold the fuckin ball". He Then went walkabout for the goal.

No denying he has done well at times but he's no Makalele or Essien and we should be having a much better pivot than our current options

[Clevemayer 764]

I love how you answer this post but not my other one i sent you, look if you want an asnwer go read that, I said i exaggerate, if you don't like it then tough, that's who i am.

was there a question that I could've answered?

[Amblève. 4,995]

So everyone's on the same page now? Took long enough.

No. One fucking second half won't make me change my opinion on a player I've been watching for years. Smh.

[Strike 6,961]

.

I wanted a proper DM in instead of Mikel, I actually really wanted us to get Cabaye and Tiote at the start of the season. Cabaye is one of the most underrated players in PL if you ask me, Tiote fantastic two seasons, this one he has been dreadful I'll admit, but he's had about a thousand injuries lets not forget.

Not anymore. His groin gave away and he had 2 surgeries in November, came back and injured it again. He's been poor since his return. Half-hearted when tackling and almost never going for full-throttle challenges. Pardew took him off even before the hour mark in the derby where his distribution was also surprisingly average.

[Kojo 4,676]

was there a question that I could've answered?

Page 106 i sent you a reply saying that I was actually a Mikel fan at the beginning of last season, but he dissapointed me.

And what the fuck where you on about saying nobody said he was great? are you kidding me, Alex and RyanDavidson say he's the best bloody midfielder in the Premier League, and that's literally. Everyone on here said Mikel was one of the best DM's last season, when we won the CL just read the god damn posts, It's only now people are starting to realise that he's not that good.

Oh and stop with the 'If he was usless he wouldn't be here' logic, because Kalou was here for long enough and he wasn't even good enough for an average premier league team.

However this forum is a rollercoaster, even though people might be saying all this now, all it takes is one decent performance from Mikel and then all the dick riders are back on here.