Since Mikel obi joined Chelsea fc in 2006,he has always played in the defensive midfield position.Undoubtebly,he is one of the best passers of the ball in the premiership even though his work-ethic is quite low.But,recently he has seen himself fall down the pecking order through injury and poor form.                            

 Essentially,after a few years in the DF role,it is almost a shame that Mikel can still not shoot properly on goal let alone score.I can bet that David luiz ,a defender can shoot better and the new boy,Ramires is already ahead of him in the pecking order due to his attacking instincts .He seems not ready to improve and chelsea fc have been left with no option than  consigning him to the bench. 
Sometimes,he could be seen jogging across the pitch when his team is under the crush.   Pedestrian style of play,half-hearted tackles have become a part of him game. And of course,he has been involved in some unsavoury off-pitch incidents in the past.                                   Only if Mikel would step up his game and put himself a higher pedestal with his compatriots?Well , I m afraid his career might just be on the downward spiral if he doesnt learn how to break up play,initiate counter-attacks and actually score himself ,once in a while.He is a  potential world-class player if he can get his acts together.Will Mikel rise to the challenge?

i really feel for mikel. he is probably the highest paid nigerian player ever.
but he has not improved at chelsea.
i have a theory that he " made it " too early and this seems to have killed his hunger for the game. of course there are younger players earning more who are also doing well but people are different especially nigerians. anyway only a theory.
plus i do not think he is at the right club but lampard appears to be doing fine. maybe he should have gone to man u but wont have paid half what chelsea pay him at his age.

idiot abeg shut up it is ur papa thats lazy, before when there wasn't any attacking midfilder then u can talk but now there are many options like joel,ibrahim,igiebor so it would be good to mae mikel a dm damm aint u guys tired of talking bout mikel

aribisala0:

i really feel for mikel. he is probably the highest paid nigerian player ever.
but he has not improved at chelsea.
i have a theory that he " made it " too early and this seems to have killed his hunger for the game. of course there are younger players earning more who are also doing well but people are different especially nigerians. anyway only a theory.
plus i do not think he is at the right club but lampard appears to be doing fine. maybe he should have gone to man u but wont have paid half what chelsea pay him at his age.

What makes you think Mikel would have made it in Man u? Maybe he would have been playing for Wigan or some other small club, what happened to other africans that went to Man u? Where is Manucho, Diuof(the senegal boy), trust me Man u would have loaned Mikel out long ago to a smaller club. Chelsea was a better option for him

High_Chief:

What makes you think Mikel would have made it in Man u? Maybe he would have been playing for Wigan or some other small club, what happened to other africans that went to Man u? Where is Manucho, Diuof(the senegal boy), trust me Man u would have loaned Mikel out long ago to a smaller club. Chelsea was a better option for him

what makes me feel? my brain which i did not borrow from anyone.
you trust me -i trust no one.
believe what you like i will do the same

no matter how cow sick reach, it can never come down to the size of a goat. mikel is stupid, he is lazy, he is everything but am sure is 100% better than those who call him names.
if he signed chelsea in 2006 and we are in 2011, mathematically, he has done 5 yrs business with chelsea and those with scientific calculators can do the financial calculations.
if anyone is disappointed with him not making it to become the world player of the year, u still have chances in other millions of players nigeria have.
as wicth rightly mentioned above, there is joel, ibrahim and other non lazy players who will delete all your disappointments.
@o.poster, with your intelligence and knowledge in football, it is a great disappointment that the Nigerian FA will prefer samson siasia above u. in fact, u are qualified to coach england national team.

Mikel is a good player no doubt, but he lacks ginger

aribisala0:

what makes me feel? my brain which i did not borrow from anyone.
you trust me -i trust no one.
believe what you like i will do the same

If your brain is that good and functional, you should be better than Mikel who has made it and successful in his career. You are entitled to your opinion but dont spew rubbish on a public forum. He is still the highest paid 9ja player and its not co-incidence. Gracias

sir i am VERY successful in my career are you?
you seem to think money is the best measure of success. i do not agree but i will not go as far as saying you are spewing rubbish. we just see the world differently thats all
maybe you needed to practice that phrase .
we can disagree without abuse.no?
i prefer kanu nwankwo,oliseh and finidi to mikel any day. i certainly think people will remember them for longer.
still i am a fan of mikel and hope he can still raise his game

even osaze in the short time he has been here has made a much greater impact than mikel and is probably earning half of what mikel is earning.
for me money is not everything but leaving a mark that is remembered for a long time.
there are others at chelsea and man city earning much more than vidic evra,park,nani and fletcher.
so what??

Mikel has done well but has to improve. I wonder why we should start insulting ourselves.

He gets these type of ratings ,more frequently than not. www.goal.com/en/match/49035/chelsea-vs-wigan-athletic/player-ratings

i do not want to be unfair to him and just for the record i have not said he is lazy.

i think he needs to be hungrier which is not quite the same thing.

one thing is not in doubt for those of us in england ,who knew nothing about mikel before he came and witnessed the struggle b/w man u and chelsea, we still do not know what they were fighting about .
question is this if chelsea put mikel on the market today how much is he worth and to whom??

i do not want to be unfair to him and just for the record i have not said he is lazy.

i think he needs to be hungrier which is not quite the same thing.

one thing is not in doubt for those of us in england ,who knew nothing about mikel before he came and witnessed the struggle b/w man u and chelsea, we still do not know what they were fighting about Undecided Undecided.
question is this if chelsea put mikel on the market today how much is he worth and to whom??

@aribisala0,
in england, is mikel a course you study maybe in school? if u were in england before mikel came, why are we not discussing u here? how successful are u to advise others. every nigerian is a coach yet we can't boost of a single qualified coach.
if you question what man u and chelsea were struggling for, it will be as good as telling us that you know better than ferguson and mourinho abi? if you ask what mikel will be worth in the market, why not start from urself? what do u worth in the market in anything u are doing? tell me that u are the best in whatever u are doing. can u concentrate on ur life instead of writing all over here in ur bid to bring someone else down. mikel has done 5 yrs at chelsea and within this period of time, we saw players came and left while mikel remain. those you prefered, were they the best players in the world at any time? were they the best in their clubs at anytime? mikel as we speak, is enjoying the biggest salary as a footballer compare to other nigerian footballers both old and present. if odewingie is as good as u said, why is he not in real madrid or barca instead of west brom? is mikel older than osaze? nigeria has over 5 million players all over the world with great abilities and qualities so why are we always talking about just one(mikel) that does not know how to play leaving those best players of our time?
in soccer, the better u are, the bigger ur club and salary. money is not everything, yet u are in a foriegn land. come back to nigeria and preach to us. even those in religion seek to buy the best cars, aircrafts and a professional will tell me money is not everything. if mikel plays the way you like and end up like etim essin, tomorrow u will feed him abi?
most of u who are this intelligent cannot convert ur intellegence to lucrative things rather u prefer to waste it advising already successful men like mikel.
chelsea is one place bad players don't last so if u think he is not good, go and see ur doctor.

mikel of 2005 is not the same mikel of today


he had lost the hungry for football

@aribisala0,
u seems to be everywhere there is a negative news about mikel. mikel obi; a lazy player? answer is yes. but in ur lineage of smart and clever players, what have u achieved to compare with the lazy player?
at least the lazy player is the best nigeria can afford for sometime now.
all over nairaland, it is news about mikel leaving the quality players to discuss the lazy one, is that not madness?
the guy has done well for himself, his family, community, nigeria and africa as a whole.

i think the guy is not given chance to express it goal scoring skill .it is not actually his fault.it is ancelotti's

@1025
listen i do not want to know you or anything about you. you are rude, uncouth and uneducated
this is a site for thoughtful and civil debate.
your evident indifference to education in childhood makes you poorly equipped for this.
whatever doubts one might have about your witlessness are dispelled with every entry you make. you have no contribution to make or perhaps you were saving the best for  last?

foseni:

i think the guy is not given chance to express it goal scoring skill .it is not actually his fault.it is ancelotti's

I dont think you could lay the blame at the doorstep of Ancelotti.Sometimes last year,concerns were raised about his style of play and goalscoring ability.Ancelloti rose to his defense saying that was not his primary role.A Defensive midfielder himself in his heydays,Ancelloti knew Mikel's game had not been up to par,but chose to protect him from the backlash while hoping for an improvement.Incidentally,he lost patience with him after some shocking displays in the middle of the park.

In some games,he had to be embarassingly hauled off at half-time.Mikel is one of our biggest ambassadors but Nigeria deserves a better representation.

I dont think you could lay the blame at the doorstep of Ancelotti.Sometimes last year,concerns were raised about his style of play and goalscoring ability.Ancelloti rose to his defense saying that was not his primary role.A Defensive midfielder himself in his heydays,Ancelloti knew Mikel's game had not been up to par,but chose to protect him from the backlash while hoping for an improvement.Incidentally,he lost patience with him after some shocking displays in the middle of the park.

In some games,he had to be embarassingly hauled off at half-time.Mikel is one of our biggest ambassadors but Nigeria deserves a better representation.

@gbenga77,
this is what i call constructive and objective criticism. in it, one will find reasoning and good intentions. when ppl criticise objectively, it is always different from criticising out of envy and calling someone better than u names.
well, like u said, nigeria needs a better representation and many here will tell u they already have it in osaze but if u don't agree with that, whose responsibility is it to bell the cat here? am sure is not mikel's duty to give nigerians the type of player they want?
the ball is on our court now as nigerians to look for what we want.

enomakos:

mikel of 2005 is not the same mikel of today


he had lost the hungry for football

you meant to say ''hunger''

you meant to say ''hunger''

@gbenga,
he mean hungry. the lazy player is back in the chelsea team and the winning mentality is back. it takes lazy mikel to do great things and chelsea is back to their winning ways.

Mikel is still the BEST holding midfielder in chelsea, he's also the BEST passer of the ball in chelsea, in my own opinion, we lost to man.united because we lacked neat passes from the midfield, he's a very confident player, once the ball is with him,he protects it as when a mother HEN protects its chick from the hawk, very strong player and also gifted, he should neva be left out of any match again, 



http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_6912145,00.html

Mikel is still the BEST holding midfielder in chelsea, he's also the BEST passer of the ball in chelsea, in my own opinion, we lost to man.united because we lacked neat passes from the midfield, he's a very confident player, once the ball is with him,he protects it as when a mother HEN protects its chick from the hawk, very strong player and also gifted, he should neva be left out of any match again,

@kennyblues,
no mind greedy nigerians. if mikel is a lazy guy as nigerians believe, if laziness can take ppl to that height, if lazy ppl can last 5 yrs in chelsea, if lazy ppl can get that rich while smart ppl sleep hungry then I WANT TO BE A LAZY MAN.

Mikel obi is finished,i learnt he now sells tickets at the gate. Chelsea is a useless club anyway.

What tickets was he selling?

@chelseabmw,
so u want to answer that thing? it is only in nigeria that you see poverty ridden fools advising well to do guys like mikel.
if all these guys calling mikel lazy are as smart as they imagine, why are they not in the news like mikel?
chelsea is not a team for lazy players and chelsea is not like nigerian politics where anybody can win anyhow. you need to have what it takes for u to last 90 minutes in chelsea.

abeg sharraaap. you ppl sef

do u even know what a defensive mid's job is? Break down the offence and make simple passes and distribution. As far as i am concerned mikel is doing a good job. Whenever Mikel plays the holding role, chelsea is a much more stable team. He is a smart player who stays back so that lampard and essien can go up. keep hatin on the man, but as far as chelsea is concerned he is a valuable asset to them

quite surprising that chelsea has not lost since mikel came back into the team
hmmmmmm,even essien was removed last week,hmmmmm
yet some nigerians are busy killing themselves over the boys success hmmmmmm
how do you define success,to some its money,to some its fulfilment in what you do to others its nonew of the above
osaze is a STRIKER dumbskulls,Mikel was a CAM but convertyed to CDM by maurinho and he is damn good at it
now imagine this scenario,we have all these joel obis and co running around now,who would be playing the defensive role in the super eaglesayila or who?? and still we are not satisfied that we have one of the best cdms in the world and i dare say world cos chelsea has the money to go get better ones(if they are out there) but still yet apart from terry,lampard,cole,drogba and cech,tell me any chelsea player that has started more games than mikel in his 5yrs there
waiting on your responses

milehigh06:

quite surprising that chelsea has not lost since mikel came back into the team
hmmmmmm,even essien was removed last week,hmmmmm
yet some nigerians are busy killing themselves over the boys success hmmmmmm
how do you define success,to some its money,to some its fulfilment in what you do to others its nonew of the above
osaze is a STRIKER dumbskulls,Mikel was a CAM but convertyed to CDM by maurinho and he is damn good at it
now imagine this scenario,we have all these joel obis and co running around now,who would be playing the defensive role in the super eaglesayila or who?? and still we are not satisfied that we have one of the best cdms in the world and i dare say world cos chelsea has the money to go get better ones(if they are out there) but still yet apart from terry,lampard,cole,drogba and cech,tell me any chelsea player that has started more games than mikel in his 5yrs there
waiting on your responses

in some crucial games,Mikel has been sacrificed for offensive playes.For example,during today's game against Manchester united,he was hauled off at half time for Ramires with Essiem switching to the DF role.He comes behind Essien in the pecking order due to the latter's explosive approach to games.I do not mean to disparage Mikel in this thread but to offer some constructive criticism.

e fi sile! MIKEL WE LOVE YOU!!! UP BLUES!!!

the thing that irks me is when pppl say he cannot score hence he is not good, is he a striker? does scoring equate to being a good player, some ppl here dont know football