John Obi Mikel: Chelsea Lacking Leadership

By Max Wise

Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has lamented the lack of leadership within the club’s playing body after they fell out of the Champions League places with a 6-0 defeat at champions Manchester City on Sunday.

Chelsea’s defeat was their heaviest in the Premier League era, and it followed another 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Bournemouth just a fortnight ago.

Mikel compared the current Chelsea side the ones he played in that contained the likes of Terry, Drogba, Cech, and Lampard, and believes what the present side lacks is leadership.

“When I watch them now, they’re fantastic players but I don’t see leaders. During our time, I could scream at Didier Drogba or Lampard," Mikel told Sun Sport.

“I was 24 or 25 years old but I could voice my opinion and it would be heard."

“Now when I watch them, there’s no one talking to each other, taking responsibility of being the leader. You need that edge and right now that’s what they’re lacking.”

Mikel Obi spent more than a decade at Chelsea after controversially joining from Norwegian club Lyn Oslo as a 19-year-old in the summer of 2006.

The Nigerian won two Premier League titles, the Champions League and the Europa League with the Blues.

“If we lost a game, we may not speak to each other for a day to show this was not good and tomorrow had to be better," he continued.

“We were just so hungry. Did we take it a bit too far? Sometimes, yes, we had to."

“There were people fighting, grabbing around the neck, JT smashing the table and drinks. If we were losing a game you did not want to be in the dressing room."

“There were countless times. If we were 1-0 down at half-time and had to win, he did it time in, time out."

“The manager would speak and then leave it to JT to carry on. He smashes the whole place up and then we go back out and get the win."

“What he said, we followed. What he did, we followed. We looked at him for a reaction and we followed."

“No matter what manager came in, you had to know the figurehead of the club was John Terry.”

The 31-year-old Nigeria national team captain recently joined championship side Middlesbrough from Chinese side Tianjin TEDA.