by Ifreke Inyang
The class of 2005 was special. I am yet to find anyone who will argue against the group of boys that represented Nigeria in the Youth Championship held in the Netherlands. From Taiye Taiwo, the explosive full back with a vicious left foot to Ogbuke, the electric winger, the football sometimes was magical. They were only stopped in their tracks at the finals by Argentina.
At the hub of all the creative play was a lanky Mikel Obi. Prodigiously gifted, deceptively quick and blessed with a marvelous range of passing, Mikel was hailed as a hybrid of two of Nigeria’s best players, Kanu Nwankwo and Jay Jay Okocha. Trust us to become emergency soothsayers. We looked into our crystal balls and prophesied that he was the messiah that would salvage Nigeria’s football reputation which was hitting rock bottom. When he eventually moved to Chelsea after a summer of wrangling that involved Manchester United, we sat back in our arm chairs and nodded. Our predictions were coming through. So we thought.
And then Jose Mourinho happened. Mikel was promptly converted to a deep lying defensive midfielder and his attacking flair was stifled. Even when Mourinho was given the sack by Abrahamovic, successive coaches have come to employ Mikel in the same role and he has inadvertently grown into the role. In the end, we have seen a potential midfield marvel restricted to ten yard backward passes. Let’s not discredit him however. He is still capable of those mesmeric 40 yard passes that pushes viewers to the edge of their chairs. But those moments of magic have been too few and far between. And as incredible as it sounds, Mikel Obi has not scored a single Premier League goal for Chelsea. The only two goals he has been able to muster for them have been in Cup competitions against relatively unknown sides.
Now, Ramires has happened. When Roman Abarmovich splashed an astonishing 17million pounds on the former Cruzeiro player, few people didn’t even see him as a replacement or even competition for Mikel Obi. We had come to live with the excessive and most times unecessary display of affluence by the Russian owner. In his first games, Ramires was completely off colour and his slight gait didn’t win him over either. But then, there was not a bother in the world as far as we knew. He simply wasn’t in Mikel’s league.
The story has changed. Ramires has surprisingly risen above all the criticisms and is one of Chelsea’s important players. As the season enters the business end, Mikel has found himself constantly watching from the bench. While Ramires has metamorphosed into an oustanding box to box midfielder with amazing energy and has added goals for good measure. Recently, it has been mooted in some quarters that some players will be shown the door at the end of the season. And Mikel Obi is rumoured to have made that list. Whether it is true or not, one fact is sure: Mikel Obi is no longer first choice. Even in the National team, another Obi, with the first name Joel is now the new beloved of fans.
One has to wonder where it all went wrong. A few people have pointed to arrogance that came with his meteoric rise to stardom. Others have argued that his disciplinary deficiencies are to blame. Whatever the case, Mikel and his advisers will have to remedy it. Otherwise, the player that once rivalled Barcelona’s Lionel Messi might just be plying his trade next season in the colours of Stoke City, Everton or even a second tier club in Macedonia!
Well written article.. but we should understand that there is a differnce btwn an up and coming youngster, and a well established world class footballer. in holland,mikel showed fantastic potential no doubt, like you said, his passing range was almost impossible,his movement was superb,the partnership he had with his team mates was almost telepathic, but mikel has always and will always lack one vital component necesary to become a world class attacking midfielder, shooting power. it is easy to say that it was caused as a result of mourhino playing him defensively, but even essien and makalele scored a few goals when they played in that same position..it is safe to say that "mikel cannot take a good shot to save his life"..
like we all know, the only way to develop a player is to maximize his strengths and minimize his weaknesses, despite the fact that mikel had no shot power, he had something most players ddnt. the ability to keep the ball even under difficult circumstances. this quality was what mourinho saw and decided to play him in the "holding" role.. people are quick to dismiss mikel as a failure in that role expecialy when they compare him with that bright young nigerian that played beautiful attacking football at the 2005 world youth championship, this assumption is wrong nevertheless.. mikel has been playing that role successfuly for 4years winning 6trophies in the process.
I also feel that the lack of playing time mikel has experienced lately is just a bit exaggerated. ramirez is no doubt a fantastic talent. Although it took him a bit of time to settle down, he has recently found his form and has been quite instrumental in chelsea's recent resurgent. Most people however have forgotten that mikel was injured for quite a while this season.infact it got to a point where people automaticaly assumed mikel was left out anytime ramirez started. since mikel got bac, he hasnt bein quite able to regain his form, but im almost certain it is only temporary, i appreciate ramirez's contirbution to the team, but chelsea definitly hasnt seen the last of mikel.
Thumbs up @ifreke. Mikel, as rightly said, came with an answer to our perennial problem of midfield creativity but that leter turned out to be a national "wish" Jose 'selfishly' made Mikel useless for our imminent need in the super eagles.