Chelsea Pun

No. Is he taking care of yours?

Revisionist nonsense.
 
Jose's first choice DM in his first spell at the club- MAKALELE.
Grant's 1st choice - Maka
Maka left and the only competition Mikel faced for his place was an oft injured Ess.
Scholari started with Essien ,who then proceeded to get injured and Mikel got the nod. Ess returns from injury and Mikel is back on the bench.
Guus' 1st choice -Lampard,Essien and Ballack. He even used Ballack as DM rather than playing Mikel there.
Carlo's 1st season- tried quite a few players at DM including Ballack and Deco. None of the players were a fit for that position and Mikel got the job.
Carlo's 2nd- We were thread bare and had let go of a lot of our players.Mikel was first choice here and what a great season that turned out to be!
AvB 1st choice -Romeu
Robbie's 1st choice-Mikel .
Jose's 2nd spell- Mikel has to compete with an ancient Lampard,an injured Ginkel, a loaned out Romeu and a b2b Ramires and still cannot be called a 1st string player. Matic is a recent purchase and has already cemented his place in the team.
 
So 2 seasons Mikel can claim to being an undisputed starter-08/09 ,10/11 and Robbie's tenure. In 10/11 it had got to a point where even Zhirkov played in CM.
Chelsea have not really invested in the CM positions since Maka left.  Mikel had to compete with players who were not actual DMs and considering we played a formation where a DM was a must,it requires no stretch of imagination as to why Mikel has started as much as he has. The position Mikel plays in has been fairly weak for years.The  managerial merry-go-round at Chelsea  and our board's tendency to just wing it have contributed heavily as well.

Time for Mikel to finally get his coat...