Mikel: Mourinho lost confidence in me

Super Eagles captain, John Obi Mikel, has blamed former Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, for losing confidence in him and confining him to the bench.

Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea in December following a string of disappointing results and was replaced by Dutchman Guus Hiddink who has since reinstated Mikel in the Chelsea first team alongside either Cesc Fabregas or Nemanja Matic.

“I think confidence is everything,” Mikel said.

“If a manager doesn’t believe in you, trust me there’s no way you can succeed. Even if you do things right he would always make sure he finds fault.

“He didn’t have the belief that he had in me before, which is fine because every manager has the player that they have trust in.

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“It is a tough business, football, so when a manager comes in he wants to have people he believes in. If he doesn’t believe in you he doesn’t play you. And I think it’s all about a manager giving a player confidence.”

Mikel added that Hiddink has changed everything in the club.

“Hiddink came in, he spoke to me, he gave me the confidence and now I have played 20 games and we’re in the best position — where we haven’t been all season.”

 

 

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