Certainly his future is at CB, I just mean that in the event that Matic is unavailable however we're stocked at CB with JT and Cahill (and possibly Stones), i'd rather play Zouma there instead of Mikel. And in fact Jose did exactly that in numerous games last season.

I don't remember him being instrumental in the CL semi or final, I remember him doing the job he was assigned. Could plenty of other people have done that job? Well Zouma did the same job in the League Cup final this season without ever even playing in that role before.

 

You are comparing Spurs to Barcelona? 

 

Many players have tried to do their assigned job against Barcelona and got destroyed anyway.

You are comparing Spurs to Barcelona? 

 

Many players have tried to do their assigned job against Barcelona and got destroyed anyway.

 

Not many have played a compact defensive game as we did, he did very well but as did everyone else in the side, morale appeared to be on our side all the time, and that's not shrugging off what he did by any means. I just fail to see why this is brought up for a player who has been here for so long and failed to deliver time and time again consistently.

 

I couldn't blame anyone who doubted him or bashed him quite honestly, he has certainly proven he's not good enough.

I give up

Certainly his future is at CB, I just mean that in the event that Matic is unavailable however we're stocked at CB with JT and Cahill (and possibly Stones), i'd rather play Zouma there instead of Mikel. And in fact Jose did exactly that in numerous games last season.

Yeah he was played at CDM but not that wasn't ahead of Mikel, Mikel was unavailable so Zouma had to play and in those games Zouma didn't look great, he was looking out of place and out of his depth his ball control and passing isn't up too scratch (and no where near the level of Mikels before you say anything) for that position obviously more time in that position and specific training will remedy that but I would prefer his focus to be on CB where I think he could truly be a great and if we were to sign Stones he would be more adept at playing CDM as he is better on the ball than Zouma is, so that might be an option for Jose to think about if Mikel has another season off the boil.

Edited July 28, 201510 yr by PedroMendez

You are comparing Spurs to Barcelona? 

 

Many players have tried to do their assigned job against Barcelona and got destroyed anyway.

 

Didn't Bosingwa play most of that game at centre back?

 

Fantastic method of judging a players ability that game then.

 

edit: Also that spurs side put 5 past us only two months earlier.

 

So, if I could attempt to summarize your pro's of Mikel's Chelsea career, which only seem to include 2 team results and no actual personal attributes or individual highlights:

 

1) Played against Barca in a game we won with Bosingwa playing at CB - great indicator of quality

2) Played against Bayern in a game we won with Ryan Bertrand on the left wing and Bosingwa at right back - again, more evidence of Bosingwa being a top draw defender and Bertrand perhaps facing an alternate career as a top 4 winger.

 

Wonderful.

Edited July 28, 201510 yr by Jonty

Didn't Bosingwa play most of that game at centre back?

 

Fantastic method of judging a players ability that game then.

 

edit: Also that spurs side put 5 past us only two months earlier.

 

So, if I could attempt to summarize your pro's of Mikel's Chelsea career, which only seem to include 2 team results and no actual personal attributes or individual highlights:

 

1) Played against Barca in a game we won with Bosingwa playing at CB - great indicator of quality

2) Played against Bayern in a game we won with Ryan Bertrand on the left wing and Bosingwa at right back - again, more evidence of Bosingwa being a top draw defender and Bertrand perhaps facing an alternate career as a top 4 winger.

 

Wonderful.

Since you don't get 224 league games and 59 games in europe if you don't have something to offer there will definitely be better examples to find the pros of Mikels game. To be fair to Mikel he has been a pretty Important member of our squad in the last 8/9 years with last season his only season with less than 20 league games and you can not say that he was dead weight for all of that period of time.

Edited July 28, 201510 yr by PedroMendez

Bang average player who's upgrade is long overdue. When he eventually leaves Chelsea there will be very little interest, if any from any other Prem club... which tells u all u need to know ...

I wish Mikel would leave Chelsea. Not because I don't like him but just so he can be free of all the unappreciative comments or maybe I should say careless comments about him. A player that sacrificed his position,style of play and future prospects as a young man for Chelsea for something you don't get a lot of young players do without kicking up a fuss. I know some Nigerian guys that hate Mourinho,chelsea and even Mikel now for the player he has become. He seemed like a beacon and the next truly great after Jay Jay Okocha in the Nigerian number 10 role but Mourinho and Chelsea they claim took that verve away from him and in their opinion he allowed them because they wanted him to fit a position were they thought he could do well in due to having very great tactical discipline which also a few chelsea managers and some of his colleagues have said but hey let's just blame the guy that can pick out a team mate with a 60 yard pass with precision but plays a 6 yard pass because the manager said so. Or the guy that can take on three players as he makes a beeline for the opposition goal and draw opposing players out to deliver the killer through ball but has passed it back or to the side due to the tactics the manager has decided to go with. Or maybe a guy that players can hardly get the ball off without fouling him and as such when he loses the ball on occasion it almost always results in a goal perhaps because his teammates also lost concentration and didn't cover enough as they didn't think Mikel could lose the ball. But I guess anyway he is the loser because rather than the football god he could have become maybe even a Man Utd legend if he didn't change his mind after he signed for them due to underhand tactics by his greedy agent and Chelsea he has just become another tiresome number the fans would be glad to see the back of.

May I ask, have you been out of the asylum long ?

May I ask, have you been out of the asylum long ?

Bit of a cheap jibe that mate

I wish Mikel would leave Chelsea. Not because I don't like him but just so he can be free of all the unappreciative comments or maybe I should say careless comments about him. A player that sacrificed his position,style of play and future prospects as a young man for Chelsea for something you don't get a lot of young players do without kicking up a fuss. I know some Nigerian guys that hate Mourinho,chelsea and even Mikel now for the player he has become. He seemed like a beacon and the next truly great after Jay Jay Okocha in the Nigerian number 10 role but Mourinho and Chelsea they claim took that verve away from him and in their opinion he allowed them because they wanted him to fit a position were they thought he could do well in due to having very great tactical discipline which also a few chelsea managers and some of his colleagues have said but hey let's just blame the guy that can pick out a team mate with a 60 yard pass with precision but plays a 6 yard pass because the manager said so. Or the guy that can take on three players as he makes a beeline for the opposition goal and draw opposing players out to deliver the killer through ball but has passed it back or to the side due to the tactics the manager has decided to go with. Or maybe a guy that players can hardly get the ball off without fouling him and as such when he loses the ball on occasion it almost always results in a goal perhaps because his teammates also lost concentration and didn't cover enough as they didn't think Mikel could lose the ball. But I guess anyway he is the loser because rather than the football god he could have become maybe even a Man Utd legend if he didn't change his mind after he signed for them due to underhand tactics by his greedy agent and Chelsea he has just become another tiresome number the fans would be glad to see the back of.

 

They may both be Nigerian but it's hard for me to come up with a player who is less like Jay Jay Okacha than JOM!!! 

Bit of a cheap jibe that mate

 

Lighten up pal.

Since you don't get 224 league games and 59 games in europe if you don't have something to offer there will definitely be better examples to find the pros of Mikels game. To be fair to Mikel he has been a pretty Important member of our squad in the last 8/9 years with last season his only season with less than 20 league games and you can not say that he was dead weight for all of that period of time.

 

To say he is an important squad player is sugar coating the fact that he has failed to get himself into our starting 11 for the past 8/9 years, despite Essien having long term injuries and no other midfielders to cover Mikel still couldn't get himself into the side. If he is a what you call important member of our squad then we can go as far to say our backup keepers are important players of our squad. 

 

As a squad player I've always found him far too inconsistent and unreliable, has good games bad games whenever he is called upon, again inconsistent. And also in my opinion not good enough and could do with being replaced. 

^ Averages 37 appearances a season. Basically a backup goalie when it comes to squad importance 

Edited July 29, 201510 yr by Stim

To say he is an important squad player is sugar coating the fact that he has failed to get himself into our starting 11 for the past 8/9 years, despite Essien having long term injuries and no other midfielders to cover Mikel still couldn't get himself into the side. If he is a what you call important member of our squad then we can go as far to say our backup keepers are important players of our squad. 

 

Well that's not true is it. 

 

2010 title winning season he made more Premier League appearances and starts than Essien,

 

2011 season he had more starts than Lampard and Ramires

 

2012 started just under half out Premier League games

 

2013 started half our Premier League games

 

2014 made 24 Premier League appearances

Off, that's a massive headshot for poor Sloth.

2010 he was barely instrumental, 2011 Lampard was injured also, Ramires was new, 2012 he was awful and those starts were under AVB. 2013 tight in the midfield area as we were for some time, 2014 sorry but can't remember when Mikel was decisive in this other title winning season? 

 

Stim is missing the point clearly, is Mikel a starter now? Who did we play last season when we needed had the 3 man midfield? Oh it was Ramires wasn't it? If not then who was it? Kurt Zouma? Noooo. It can't have been that young defender we played with little midfield experience over our main Chelsea man who has been here for 8 years.

 

If Mikel isn't a key player or a starter then what is he? he's a squad player at that, pretty simple concept. And yes he has failed to nail himself into the side, he always eventually gets dropped one way or the other because he has never been efficient enough. 

To be honest would be happier if we sold Ramires...

 

By virtue of his British citizenship Mikel is now home grown, no? No qualms with Mikel staying with us for a few more years, can't think of many who would actually improve the squad (in his position) other than Pogba?

Edited July 29, 201510 yr by the special one

By virtue of his British citizenship Mikel is now home grown, no?

 

That is a good question...

That is a good question...

He's a British citizen but he does not count as homegrown. He joined when he was 19, missing out on homegrown status by about a year. 

My bad - by home grown I meant he no longer takes up a foreign quota spot? If so seems a valid reason to keep him around (at least until RLC proves his worth or if Pogba sees his future here)?

Edited July 29, 201510 yr by the special one

Well that's not true is it. 

 

2010 title winning season he made more Premier League appearances and starts than Essien,

 

2011 season he had more starts than Lampard and Ramires

 

2012 started just under half out Premier League games

 

2013 started half our Premier League games

 

2014 made 24 Premier League appearances

 

2010...where Essien was injured for more than half the season?

 

2011...where Lampard was injured for more than 4 months. As for Ramires; Ramires actually made more league appearances than Mikel that season.

 

2012...Our worst league performance of the Roman era

 

2013...Made less league appearances than a 35 year old Frank Lampard and Ramires. Mikel was literally the only other player for that position in the entire first team squad other than Oriol Romeu who was injured for the season after 6 games. And even then a defender, David Luiz, was often preferred in his position.

 

2014...A mere squad player until Matic rendered him entirely unnecessary when he joined in January. Prior to that was still a backup to Luiz who, again, is not even a midfielder.

 

I don't know why people have to go out of their way to manipulate statistics to make Mikel appear more than he is; A player who we expected to develop into a world class player but who never even came close to getting there. If he were putting in performances at another club like he has been since he joined Chelsea, there is no way we would ever be looking at signing him, and those bending over backwards to show how great he is would be firmly in the do-not-sign camp themselves. At best he could perhaps settle at a club like West Brom or Stoke where his significant limitations going forward can be ignored as he would be required to do more defending anyway - but at a club competing for titles he is a waste on the pitch for any job more than parking the bus for the last 10 minutes of a game. And even then there are many, many far more capable and versatile players that could do exactly that - as shown by the fact that not once but twice in the last few years, he's been knocked out of the team by a centre back.

 

I have nothing against the man and I feel like a knob for making repeated posts bringing this topic back to reality, but I just cannot help myself reading some of the ridiculousness posted in this topic.

Edited July 29, 201510 yr by Jonty

Sloth said in 9 years Mikel " has failed to get himself into our starting 11, despite Essien having long term injuries and no other midfielders to cover". 

 

I simply disproved that as being false. 

 

I'm quite happy to discuss our players with people but you can't have posters making things up to build a false argument. 

Fair enough, although I consider the Starting XI to mean who our first choice XI would be disregarding injuries and suspensions, and I don't think at any point of his Chelsea career would I have considered him to be a part of it. He would have been behind a fit Michael Essien, Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard when he joined, Ramires from 2011 onwards too, then Luiz in midfield and finally Matic from the season before last. If not for Essien's extensive injury woes he likely wouldn't have played anywhere near as many games and may even have been sold, however our loss was his gain in that regard.

 

But in terms of making lots of appearances as a result of injury and necessity, clearly he has racked up a lot of them, can't argue with that.

Edited July 29, 201510 yr by Jonty

Sloth said in 9 years Mikel " has failed to get himself into our starting 11, despite Essien having long term injuries and no other midfielders to cover". 

 

I simply disproved that as being false. 

 

I'm quite happy to discuss our players with people but you can't have posters making things up to build a false argument. 

 

You pretty much just lied yourself at one point in your post that Jonty quoted, so you just made a false argument....