{"id":39859,"date":"2021-03-27T13:15:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-27T13:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?p=39859"},"modified":"2021-03-27T13:05:03","modified_gmt":"2021-03-27T13:05:03","slug":"epl-what-mourinho-did-to-me-at-chelsea-obi-mikel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-what-mourinho-did-to-me-at-chelsea-obi-mikel","title":{"rendered":"EPL: What Mourinho did to me at Chelsea \u2013 Obi Mikel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Nigeria<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Former Super Eagles captain, John Obi Mikel, has disclosed that Tottenham Hotspur manager, Jose Mourinho, helped him to become the player he is today during their time together at Chelsea.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old said Mourinho didn\u2019t just help him football-wise, but the former Manchester United manager was one of the people who helped him grow up at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n

Mikel, who currently plays for Stoke City in the Championship, played under Mourinho in the Portuguese\u2019s two separate spells at Chelsea.<\/p>\n

The Nigerian midfielder made 119 appearances under Mourinho, who is known for his strict management approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Jose Mourinho] didn\u2019t just help me football-wise. He was one of the guys who helped me grow up,\u201d Mikel told The Athletic.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing to Chelsea, I acted like it would be the same as playing for Nigeria Under-17s. He quickly made me realise this was not the under-17s! There is no messing about anymore. I had to wake up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mikel added, \u201cIt is because he cares about you so much and really wants you to be that player because he knows you have that quality inside of you.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise, he wouldn\u2019t care. If he does things to you, it\u2019s because he really believes in you. I took it in the right way, and I worked, and I worked on myself. And then I became the player that he wanted me to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, Mourinho was the one who changed things, but I wouldn\u2019t say he ruined my career or whatever! I still played as a No 10 for the national side. Mourinho is a manager I will always look up to.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf all the managers I had, he was the toughest. I knew that if I could survive him, I could survive pretty much anyone! He made me who I am today. I will always be thankful to him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Former Super Eagles captain, John Obi Mikel, has disclosed that Tottenham Hotspur manager, Jose Mourinho, helped him to become the player he is today during their time together at Chelsea. The 33-year-old said Mourinho didn\u2019t just help him football-wise, but the former Manchester United manager was one of the people who helped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":39858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18,26],"tags":[1570,2140,485,885,2715,254,446],"class_list":["post-39859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-chelsea","tag-epl","tag-mourinho","tag-nigeria","tag-obi-mikel"],"yoast_head":"\nEPL: What Mourinho did to me at Chelsea \u2013 Obi Mikel - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Super Eagles captain, John Obi Mikel, has disclosed that Tottenham Hotspur manager, Jose Mourinho, helped him to ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-what-mourinho-did-to-me-at-chelsea-obi-mikel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EPL: What Mourinho did to me at Chelsea \u2013 Obi Mikel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Super Eagles captain, John Obi Mikel, has disclosed that Tottenham Hotspur manager, Jose Mourinho, helped him to ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-what-mourinho-did-to-me-at-chelsea-obi-mikel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-27T13:15:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/03\/img-605f2d5262427.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-what-mourinho-did-to-me-at-chelsea-obi-mikel#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-what-mourinho-did-to-me-at-chelsea-obi-mikel\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"EPL: What Mourinho did to me at Chelsea \u2013 Obi Mikel\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-27T13:15:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-what-mourinho-did-to-me-at-chelsea-obi-mikel\"},\"wordCount\":324,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-what-mourinho-did-to-me-at-chelsea-obi-mikel#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/03\/img-605f2d5262427.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"chelsea\",\"EPL\",\"mourinho\",\"Nigeria\",\"Obi mikel\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-what-mourinho-did-to-me-at-chelsea-obi-mikel#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-what-mourinho-did-to-me-at-chelsea-obi-mikel\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-what-mourinho-did-to-me-at-chelsea-obi-mikel\",\"name\":\"EPL: What Mourinho did to me at Chelsea \u2013 Obi Mikel - 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