Kojo

Now, now, what happens on TalkChelsea stays on TalkChelsea
 
Remember we are all CFC fans, but not everyone is going to have the same opinion. Just keep the Blue Flag flying high & you will be ok w/ me bud.

I wasn't taking a shot at you. I was just emphasizing that you are not a Mikel fan, but you have changed your opinion on his play as of late. I remember the days you were crying out for Tiote to replace Mikel. I think after The Super Eagles defeated Côte d'Ivoire (I love saying this/typing this btw), you could see a Mikel led Nigeria boss the match vs Côte d'Ivoire. Again Mikel tailors his game to suit the need of CFC. I think many fans are looking straight at the score sheet, but a side needs team players to take a role & not to try to be the star. IMHO Jose put this into Mikel's thought process. I have heard him say this when speaking about Jose. Again, I am happy to have Mikel on our side & not playing for le arse, who I think could really use a player like him. Oh & those people are referring how manure fans are saying Mikel is garbage are the same fans that say Roy Keane is an angel. We all know that is not the case.

I believe all of us are entitled to have our opinions on players. The other Chelsea forum couldn't have a good debate about Mikel without insulting you, I think this forum has a bit more sense and I don't think anyone is going to get ridiculed for their opinion.
 
I wasn't a big fan of Mikel, his performances last season and the season before where not good enough. He proved to be nothing more but a passenger, in a side that only has two midfielders we can't have passengers, we need midfielders who are the backbone of the team, we already have far too many attackers as it is. But as I previously stated I think Mikel has gotten better and I am happy we didn't sell him and get some other player, because I think we need to avoid transition as much as possible, the fact that we haven't won the title in 3 seasons isn't good. Let’s make use of that, replacing all our players like Man City do every season will not help us build a team, it will only lead to making a new team every season. We need legends and characters not people who will come and go every season or two.

Mentality is a harder problem to fix than technical ability.
As Lane and bjd pointed out, Mikel just isn't very good at the things people think he's good at because he's tall snd black.