by Mark Bassey

Demba Ba has claimed that Chelsea bos Jose Mourinho, never gave him a chance to prove himself at the club.

The Senegal striker was only called upon, when Samuel Eto’o and Fernando Torres were unavailable to play, although he scored 14 goals in 23 starts for the Blues.

“Sometimes when you are at a club with a lot of big stars, the name counts for more than the statistics. Unfortunately, it was like that in my case,” said the 29-year-old said.

“But I am happy I moved from Newcastle to Chelsea and achieved what I did. I have lots of friends there. Eden Hazard is one of my best friends, I am close to Branislav Ivanovic, too. All my wishes are for them to win the league.”

Ba, who came very close to joining Arsenal a year ago, will face the Gunners with his new team Besiktas, in the UEFA Champions League play-off on Tuesday.

He said: “I always said the move to Arsenal was close. I thought the deal was done and I would just go and do the medical, but it went another way.

“Jose has said why it didn’t happen. He was honest, he just didn’t want to give them a striker who could score goals, especially with the arrival of Ozil. Now I am playing Arsenal in such a big match. It’s crazy but I’ve no regret on everything that happened.”

Ba is already a cult hero in Istanbul and he is confident his young team-mates can upset Arsene Wenger’s men to progress into the group stages.

“Our team are very young and still learning,” he said. “We will have a very tough game against Arsenal, but we want to go through to the Champions League spot and get the six matches in the group stages.”.

ifreke

Ifreke Inyang is a public commentator and social media critic who has worked with a number of high profile publications across the country.