John Obi Mikel has warned Chelsea that 4 star players could leave in the event that they stick with their current transfer model and fail to determine a transparent set of ‘objectives’.
Chelsea have adopted a youth-led recruitment strategy since Todd Boehly’s BlueCo purchased the club from Roman Abramovich back in 2022.
It has seen the Blues invest heavily in largely young and untested talent, while countless experienced, trophy-winning members of the dressing room have been allowed to depart.
This meant Liam Rosenior inherited considered one of the youngest first-team squads in European football when he took over the reins from Enzo Maresca at Stamford Bridge in January.
With Chelsea’s results dropping off markedly before the international break, questions surrounding the club’s transfer model – and an apparent lack of leadership – have intensified amongst the fanbase.
Marc Cucurella only added to the sensation of uncertainty and instability along with his comments within the Spanish media this week, criticising the board’s wayward considering and questioning the choice to sack Maresca.
It comes after Enzo Fernandez threw his future into doubt within the wake of Chelsea’s Champions League elimination by the hands of PSG, with the midfielder refusing to rule out a move away from west London in the summertime.
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Fernandez also admitted he can be keen to someday live in Madrid during a recent interview with Argentine streamer Marcos Giles, fuelling rumours of a possible big-money move to the Bernabeu.
‘That’s not a pacesetter,’ Obi Mikel said of Fernandez’s remarks on The Obi One Podcast.
‘That’s something where if you’ve leaders, if you’ve leaders that players respect and look as much as, you wouldn’t come out and make those statements since you’d be considering, “How is that this going to go down within the dressing room? How is that this going to go down with the highest players, the large players, after they see this?”, after we’ve been dumped out of the Champions League.
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‘You were the captain in that game and also you come out and make those statements… how would that go down well with the senior players within the dressing room?
‘He’s checked out it and he’s considering, “Who the f*** goes to carry me responsible in that dressing room?”… nobody! The leadership is just not there.
‘So he thinks, “I can come out, say regardless of the f*** I would like, nobody goes to carry me responsible”, and that’s exactly what happened.’
Based on Obi Mikel, Fernandez should simply ‘f*** off” if that is actually his wish as ‘no player is greater than the football club’.
‘I actually have to say about Enzo Fernandez that his progression on the football club began recuperating,’ the previous Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder added.
‘Once we signed him, everyone was questioning it. But he had a superb season last season and he scored just a few goals, he was arriving late within the box, getting goals and winning us games.
‘But for him to return out and make such a press release after we’ve been disgracefully dumped out of the Champions League, and also you come out after wearing the captain’s armband… no player is greater than the football club.
‘If he’s had enough, put your hands up, f*** off and we move on. We move on.
‘No player player is greater than the football club, especially a club as huge as Chelsea.
‘You can’t come out and say that, it doesn’t matter what is happening. It doesn’t matter what is occurring, you’re being paid handsomely to be at this football club, try to be grateful that you just’re playing for a club like Chelsea.’
Though Obi Mikel can see where Fernandez’s ‘frustration’ has come from, he encouraged the Argentina international to indicate respect for the fans who proceed to indicate their support and pay his wages.
He continued: ‘I can understand, a bit bit, his frustration, but you continue to must respect the badge, you continue to must respect the football club, you continue to must respect the fans.
‘The fans are those who pay your wages.
‘If you come out and make that statement, that could be very, very disrespectful to the football club and to the fans.’
Obi Mikel, a two-time Premier League winner with Chelsea, believes the balance of the squad has been lost and there must be a combination of youth and experience if the club are to return to their former glory.
‘The strategy of the football club immediately is bringing in young players, but where is the experience?’ he went on.
‘You would like a little bit of experience to guide these young players because that is the Premier League, that is probably the most difficult league on the earth.
‘If you herald those young players from Brazil, Spain, Africa, wherever you’re bringing them from, it is a difficult, difficult league, that is probably the most difficult league on the earth.
‘They need any person in the sport, on the pitch, to have the ability to guide them when the sport is hard, when the sport is difficult.
‘It doesn’t matter how good you might be as a young player, that is the Premier League and it can eat you up. You would like a little bit of experience to have the ability to guide you thru games.
‘If you don’t have that, you struggle, you’ll struggle massively, so, for me, the strategy of the football club is to herald those young players… but you continue to need experience.
‘You would like a combination of whatever you want to do and still keep the culture of the football club which is winning trophies.’
Unless Chelsea manage to send out a transparent message to each players and fans over their objectives, Obi Mikel can see lots of the club’s biggest names heading for the exit door.
He explained: ‘Right away, we now have players like Cole Palmer, players like Enzo Fernandez, Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo… after they start getting phone calls from the likes of Real Madrid…
‘Florentino Perez [Real Madrid president] is a master in stealing players from clubs. He puts on this bid and you possibly can’t refuse, you possibly can’t refuse a phone call from Florentino Perez.
‘That’s why I query it [Chelsea’s current model] and that’s why I say: what’s the target? The target of this club needs to be winning, winning trophies.
‘We don’t need to turn out to be a club like Arsenal where it’s taken them 22 years to be on the verge of winning the Premier League. We don’t need to be that.
‘We don’t need to turn out to be that form of club, we wish to be back winning the Premier League, since the Premier League is the creme de la creme.
‘We’ve been so spoiled winning these kind of trophies so I don’t know the objectives of the football club. The owners have to return out and tell everybody what’s the aim of the football club. It’s so simple as that since the fans have the proper to know.
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‘And when you’ve these players, there’s no smoke without fire. Right away, we all know that Cole Palmer is being linked with Manchester United, Cucurella has come out and said he’s enthusiastic about his future and Enzo Fernandez the identical thing.
‘Moises Caicedo hasn’t come out and said it but when he gets a phone call from Real Madrid, he’s gone, mate, because they don’t know what their future is, they don’t know when they are going to start winning trophies again.
‘They’re enthusiastic about their future now, they don’t need to wait one other 4 or five years.’
Chelsea will look to finish their wretched four-match losing streak after they return to motion against Port Vale within the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday.
Eight days later, Rosenior’s men turn their attentions back to Premier League matters with a frightening contest at home to Manchester City.
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