Mourinho targets Mikel deal

By Festus Abu

Inter Milan manager, Jose Mourinho, may have identified Super Eagles midfielder, Mikel Obi, as the man he needs to shore up his ailing midfield as he aims to win the UEFA Champions League next season.



Jose Mourinho





The Milan club is on the verge of winning the Italian Serie A three times in a row but the management and the fans appear to be more interested in the Champions League which the 101-year-old outfit has won twice - 1964 and 1965.

Milan-based sports paper Midiaset said on Monday that Mourinho was planning to offer Mikel a £3.3 million-a-year contract, £800,000 more than Chelsea's new £2.5 million-a-year deal for the 21-year-old player.

With injury-prone Patrick Vieira set for the exit door in the summer and Sulley Muntari not consistent, Mikel fits the bill to provide Inter Milan the cutting edge to emerge as a strong contender for the Champions League next year. The Italian side was sent packing from the second round of this year's competition after a 2-0 defeat on aggregate to Manchester United.

Mourinho was Chelsea boss when Mikel was involved in the longest transfer saga in the history of the game.

On April 29, 2005, a few days after Mikel turned 18, Manchester United announced that it had struck a four-old deal for the Nigerian with Lyn Oslo which would see the player arrive at Old Trafford in January 2006.

However, Chelsea later issued a counter-claim, saying it had already had an agreement with Mikel and his agents. But Lyn Oslo denied the claim. Subsequent reports indicated that Chelsea was involved in arranging the player's original move to Europe with a view to signing him at a later date. Further substance was added to this claim after it was revealed that the player had impressed Mourinho while training with the club's first-team squad during the summer of 2004.


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