John Mikel Obi made 372 appearances for Chelsea between 2006 and 2016, winning every major honor during his time with the West London club
John Mikel Obi has joked that Chelsea need to bring back their old players to help them solve their current on-field troubles, Soccernet.ng reports.
The retired Nigerian midfielder made 372 appearances in ten years at the West London club, winning every major trophy before departing in November 2016.
The 36-year-old most notable performance for the club came in the final of the 2012 Uefa Champions League against Bayern Munich, where his brilliance and dynamism helped the Blues to a historic triumph.
However, Mikel made a return alongside 2012 heroes like John Terry, Gary Cahill, John Mikel Obi, Michael Essien, Ramires, and Florent Malouda to team up for Chelsea Legends against Bayern Munich Legends in a memorable game to honor ex-Chelsea striker Gianluca Vialli at the Stamford Bridge on 9 September.
It was a match Chelsea dominated. Essien opened the scoring with a fine header before further goals from John Terry, Gary Cahill, and Tiago Mendes gave Roberto Di Matteo’s side a 4-0 victory.
After the end of the game, the former Blues midfielder was asked to give his thoughts on the club’s current troubles and he attempted to make light of the situation.
The London club have won just one of their opening four games and Mikel was able to see the funny side.
They need to bring us back, I’m joking, He told Hayters TV, as quoted by Daily Mail
However, the former Chelsea star did then insist that the club would be fine as long as the players gel together.
The Nigerian added:
They are fine, they will be fine. I think the club is going through a massive transition.
So we need to give them time. There are a lot of good, fantastic young players.
We need to give them time, we need to make sure they get time to work on the training ground and start to get together as a team.
Once we could be able to do that, I think we will be back competing again, but it’s going to take us a bit of time.
Mikel was part of the squad that won Nigeria’s third Africa Cup of Nations(AFCON) trophy in 2013, and the Bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
