Former Super Eagles captain, Mikel Obi, has revealed how scared he was playing under top coach, Jose Mourinho during his time at Chelsea.
Mikel, who retired from football at 35 in September was signed by the Portuguese manager in 2016.
According to him, Mourinho’s methods of getting his message across to players in the dressing room was scary to him.
The former Trabzonspor and Stoke City star recounted how the Portuguese
coach ripped into Mohamed Salah due to his performance in a game.
“I was scared of Jose Mourinho,” Mikel told Mail Sports.
“I was definitely scared of him. I mean, this guy, the things he did to players, but it’s just a way of him passing his message across, trying to get the best out of the players.
“I remember what Jose Mourinho did to Mohamed Salah, the guy was crying in the dressing room in the second half. I think he was having a bad game. And then obviously Mourinho came in and ripped into him, massively ripped into him.
“Salah was in tears. And then what happened? Mourinho didn’t let him back onto the pitch for the second half. He took him off. He ripped into him and then got him off.”
He added that Belgian playmaker, Eden Hazard, was one of the laziest players he played with at Chelsea.
“The worst, the laziest footballer I’ve ever seen in my life. But then come the weekend, Eden Hazard produces – he was the man of the match. And he comes in with the trophy and he’s like, ‘come on guys, see?’
“I actually think when you look at Eden Hazard now, he’s lost a lot of
weight. But when he was at Chelsea, the night before a game, after
dinner, he sits there for like 20 minutes after, he’s eating rice
pudding… he likes his food!
“But then Eden Hazard goes to bed, wakes up in the morning and on a Saturday, 3pm, he’s there. We just let him do whatever he wants.”
He also recounted how players knew their manager would be sacked under Roman Abramovich.
“We always had a meeting with Roman. Once the team was not doing well,
he came in and had a chat with us. Then he sits down, he has this guy,
his friend, who sits with him – he’s the interpreter. And then he starts
shouting and screaming in Russian!
“And then the guy interprets what he said in English, and he starts screaming and then goes, ‘You know what, you guys go back now and play football and start winning.’
“If we’re not winning, the next time Roman comes in, he flies in with
his helicopter and comes to the training ground and that’s it, we know
the manager’s gone. Once he flies in with his helicopter, the manager is
gone.”
