First off all, I have to confess to being a Manchester United Fan , but I am going to be as objective as possible.

Well Mikel Obi had a great under-21 competition and I think he's one of the best prospects around today, but I fear he's about ruining all that because of money.

Now personally as a football fan I think Mikel should head to Old Trafford where he'll get all the mentoring he needs and the opportunity to play at any level. It's a Manchester United tradition to allow young players play at the highest level when they show the ability. The Manchester United midfield has enough space from McNeal at the moment and with young chaps like Ronaldo, Rooney and Fletcher he won't be out of place at all. He'll get his chance sooner rather than later.

On the other hand at Chelsea he'd have to cope with a midfield already bursting with experience and personnel - Cole, Duff, [Swp??], Lampard, Makalele, Geremi, Jarosik, Thiago, Robben, and there's the little matter of Micheal Essien too.

I'd like to hear your comments, especially Chxta's

Related: Halleluyah: Mikel Obi Joins Chelsea

U seem to know it all, and have said it all, right ?

WRONG !!!

Mikel is a talented player, and I believe he will find a place in any team in the world.
Removing sentiment, Mikel should play for Arsenal, as they have just sold Viera, and their midfield has a GREAT BIG VOID. But of course, Arsenal is not in the race to sign him, and the fact that there is a race to buy him means the coaches have plans for him.
Look at Owen. He arrived an already saturated Madrid team, and sits on the bench, but he came of that bench to score 13 goals. He's fighting to prove himself better than Ronaldo and/or Raul, and he is succeeding. I won't be surprised if he plays more matches, and scores more goals this season.

Bottom line, Mikel in Chelsea sounds almost as sweet as Nigeria winning the World Cup, defeating Argentina 9-0 in the final ( that be say we spell argentina give them )

hmnnn
thank god you commented to being an ASSenal fan(pardon the pun) but you seem a bit uneducated football wise chelsea plays a l 4-4-2 which actually is a 4-3-3 with 4 defenders ,makalelel,lampard , eidur, with robben duff forward and drogba in the middle in a diamond shaped formation. no manager in his right mind even with all michels talent willl place him ahead of any of these midfield or forward palyers at thius time except for injuries. now we have swp for 21 million and probably essien. where does michel fit in to this puzzle i might ask

u think about it.........where would mikel be..........the midfield is already packed full...........if i were mikel i'd rather stay in manutd........where it is a bit open........kleberson has gone............scholes is old...........keane is still there but needs the vibrance of Mikel's play....... Manu is a better option .....

mind u i am a gunner

Sorry to dissapoint you, but I prefer ManU to ASSenal, anyday anytime.
However, I just used that example to show you that in football, there is no such thing as without sentiment.

I am a Milan fan, in general, but a Chelsea fan (in the premeirship).

Your description of Mourhino's tactics show that you actually do "watch" football, and not "look" at the players.
Still, I say Mikel should be in a team that he wants to play for, and not in a team that seem to want him now, but won't hesitate to sell him off for peanuts the moment he starts to falter (ask Cole and Yorke)

Mikel should bust man utd and chelsea and move to JUVE. we need just one creative midfielder (the final piece to our amazing squad).

How far now...........Chelsea Manutd..ARsenal now JUve..........

we re talking english here..............forget the Italians..........

Juve sucks anyway........

Gunners......4 life

sorry
juve fans your team aint in the picturew fro now.but really whitebaby cole and yorke were over tyhe peak and were on the down,.they were also on the old side and it wouldnt have been fair to keep them as squad players when good business could have been done.its different for mikel .most nigerian under 17,20,23 palyers never make it big because of the wrong choice of a first club.mikel could easily go thje same way if care isnt taken.mikel for manu is thye right choice i believe

Sorry all, I have been ill, still recovering...

Now as to Mikel Obi... the boy is foolish looking for money. In my opinion, ManU will be a better place for him to grow as a footballer than Ch€£$ki, but having made that rant, this is the situation as it stands:

FIFA is likely to give the young man the nod to go to Ch€£$ki because Ch€£$ki payed for his youth contract even before Mourn-inho came along... Ch€£$ki scouts spotted him in Finland 2003, and made him out as one for the future, but because of the damn English work permit rule (who do they think they are by the way), it was recommended that they talk with Shittu, and hide him somewhere until he can garner enough games for Nigeria to get a work oermit. It was initially to have been Portugal, but had he been in Portugal, they felt that other big clubs will notice him (like they haven't noticed him), so they chose Norway. Now, with Ch€£$ki, himself and Ogbuke were on youth contracts, which are not legally binding, so Lynn was able to snap them up. However, at Lynn, though they signed professional contracts, those contracts weren't binding since they hadn't turned 18, so Lynn didn't have a right to sell.

Now to Dan Fletcher, the English agent who claims to be their agent, and negotiated the deal with ManU for Obi...

That guy is f*cking greedy. Let me tell you why... The richest people in world football are agents, especially and agent who owns part of a good player (like Robinho's agent) or one who has more than 10 footballers on his books (like Trezeguet's agent). Why? In the case of Robinho's agent, he owns 40% of Robinho, so now that Madrid are going to be paying $50 million for Robinho, the agent automatically pockets $20 million (which is why all the newspapers are reporting that Madrid payed Santos $30 million). As for someone like Trezeguet's agent (Dan Fletcher falls into that group) he is the agent for the following big Frnech stars: Trez, Henry, Meghni, Sinama-Pongolle, Le Tallec, and just about every youthful French player who went through the Cannes academy. As a result of being their agent, he is entitled to a small percentage of their wages every week (why is Ashley Cole's agent so concerned about the sum on his contract if he doesn't get a cut), so do the maths for that guy if every week he pockets 10% of Henry, Trez, Sinama, etc's wages, and that is big money!

Now back to Fletcher, as Obi's agent (which he wasn't in the first place, he has never even met Obi face to face), he was entitled to 10% of the boy's wages based on the principles as set down in the Bosman ruling. Does any one here know that he factored 30% for himself in that contract? And that is minus the regular 10%. The kind of contract that Justice Christopher signed in Levskiy Sofiya and Julius Aghahowa signed in Shakhtar.

Well, once again I'll state that in purely footballing terms, Obi has a better chance to grow in ManU (Scholes who is his direct competition there is over 30, so Obi will get comparatively a lot of playing time) as compared to Chelsea (how e wan take bench Lampard?). But is he to go to ManU, that contract will have to be renegotiated...

But then again, ManU fans won't accept him, so I think the best bet for him is not to even go to England. Italy would be a place where his kind of play would be greatly utilised. If he goes to Lecce or Siena, he will play week in week out, and that is the way he can improve. Of course as a Juve fan I'd want him in Juve, but as a Nigeria fan, I know he won't play at this point in time, so let him go to Siena.

But then again, all that is wishful thinking... Ch€£$ki don use money take cover im eye!

Obi is going to leave an ass print on the chelsea bench.

If this is true, then I don't want Obi in ManU anymore:

Sir Alex is livid that Rio, Rooney and Cristiano hired a chauffeured limousine to come back from a friendly in Scotland.

While the others used the team bus.

I've heard of ridiculous and comical behaviour by footballers, but this is appalling by Rio Ferdinand.

The other two are kids.

He is old enough to know better.

I wonder what Roy Keane thinks about that ?

What do the Glazers think of it ?

The Glazers are trying to bring professional American sports management to the franchise.

That may be a good thing. It's too soon to say.

They have US athletes you've never heard of earning more money than Rio, Roon and Ronaldo put together.

Rio is holding out for an obscene £120,000 a week on a new contract.

I'd previously thought Sir Alex would keep him till the World Cup, showcase him in Germany, then flog him.

Now, who knows?

Is Rio bright enough to dream up this escapade to get himself a transfer now ?

Source: http://www.anr.uk.com/articles/m-2005-07-20-11-16-32.html

Why? Because should Obi go to ManU, the people he would hang out with are Rooney and Cristiano (his age mates), and dem go spoil am tire. And when a player is spoilt, his career goes downhill. Quote me on this when we talk about Rooney in 5 years...

boys will be boys.

hello
rooney and ronaldo are going through a phase and there no one better than sir alex to bring them up.as for rio he's giving greed a bad name imagine a defender who doesnt score holding up for 120000 weekly .left for me we'd sell him to real and use whats left to buy 3 players. i midfielder and two defenders. mikels ass(pardon my french) will get burnt sitting on a bench at the bridge.
mourinhos building for the future and not the near future with buys like mikel hes looking at 3-4 years from now and i think the time for mikel to start building is now, so manus the better choice as far as i am concerned

What? Since when was Sir Alex qualified to bring up youngsters? He's complaining about Rio leading Rooney and Ronaldo into "sin", but who allows gambling on the airplanes and team buses?

Mikel could do himself some favour by playing in the italian league. But if he wants the English premier league, Man u will be good as he has a chance of displacing Scholes in a short time

chimanu, u dont know what u are talkin bout, man utd is a pro-british club, obi will not get the chances he deserve if he goes there. Why do u think Q fortune is still a sub even after having a good season last season? OBI is part of chelsea's long time plan and he was not meant to have returned from norway by now if man utd had not gone thru the back door to make him sign under duress. If he cant command a regular shurt at Chelsea, we'll let him out on loan for him to play more but be sure that chelsea get plan 4d dude. and what is wrong if he goes to chelsea coz of the pay, u mean to tell me that u dont like money?

Dile thanks for not confessing to being a Chelsea fan or at least anti manu. for manu being pro British even mourinho would tell you that there are special things about British players which are admirable eg. their fighting spirit and fitness levels , thats why he has confessed to wanting to build a core of the Chelsea team on young British(English )players e.g Cole,SWP,lampard,Terry,Johnson etc. its only fair for an English team to be pro British, i know you'd want to suggest manus playing style is too British but i believe teams should play to their strenghts with tactical changes whenever necessary as for Quinton fortune where do you suggest he play and for whom? giggsy or in central midfield ahead of Keane or scholes or probably ahead of Heinz at left full back.Q fortune unfortunately with all his talent can only remain a squad player useful as a stopgap and very efficient he lacks the pace or sufficient skill (i actually believe he has the skill-look at him at the 2000 Olympics and for south Africa) but lacks the confidence to show it). hes an integral part of the squad but not a first teamer , even at Chelsea Joe Cole found it impossible to get playing time if no t for injuries, every good manager has his first eleven and only slots in replacements with injuries .its only in few cases that theses replacements break into the first team fully.
Bye

Chimanu
for ur information, like c0dec said sometime ago... i am a violent fan of chelsea's
peace

@ dile, for curiousity, I'd like to know how long you've been on the Chelsea train. Are you Chelsea or are you Ch€£$k¥ ?

i believe he is Ch€£$k¥ cos the way he talks.....

and i am very sure he just joined the train... when the vialli's and zola's were there....where were u....?

now u guys have money...

nothin dey happen

@dile

u r just a fairweather guy...

dile used to be an arsenal fan.

Hey Guyz
I've alwayz been a chelsea fan, ever since the dayz of babayaro n vialli... c0dec can testify to that coz he's my boy from wayback. but guyz but why is that yall can be objective bout other clubs that u aint a fan of, but when it comes to chelsea everything they do is wrong. This is a revolution and we play with our heads instead of our hearts, i suggest u guyz should join the train

@ Dile, if Babayaro and Vialli are the names you can pull out of the hat, then it means you were never a Chelsea fan...

maybe thats when i woke from my slumber, but it does not in any way dispute the allegiance i pledged to them now.

chxta, stop worrying about me and find a medium to convey my views to ur coach wenger aight!!!!!

chxta is not a fan of any english club............

he's an italian....

and mind the way u refer to my coach

yes oh. chxta is a juventino!

Some people think life is black,
Some people think its white,
We all know its black and white
FORZA JUVE!!!

i dont have much words for all u juve fans now, aSSenal and man utd are our major rivals,
i'll rather save my energy for them

yeah rite..on sunday we know wats up.........whether all the money u've spent is actually worth it but i assure u... u guys are not going to find it easy...

trust me on that...

lordimpaq
let me not say mush,but lets talk some more after sunday
OK

http://www.fifa.com/en/media/index/0,1369,109096,00.html?articleid=109096