Chelsea star John Obi Mikel has slammed former manager, Jose Mourinho, and said the Portuguese manager did not instill any confidence in him to play for the club. The Nigerian joined Chelsea in 2006 for €20m establishing himself in the first team but failed to make it into Mourinho's first team plans towards the latter end of the manager's reign.
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.
Currently on international duty with the Super Eagles, Mikel spoke about the importance of confidence and how Mourinho never motivated or filled him with confidence. “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.
“People change in any walk of life, maybe he decided he wanted to do better in a different way and he didn’t need me anymore.
“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.
“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.”
Apart from citing the benefits of confidence, Mikel also spoke about how Hiddink has come back and changed everything in the club lifting them to their best position all season.
Mikel added: “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.”
Chelsea have two of their next Premier League games away from home to Aston Villa and Swansea and will make a push for a UEFA Europa League spot in the final eight games of the season.
