Chelsea's dominance in English football since Roman Abramovich took over in 2004 has been quite impressive. Despite arguably dropping off in the last couple of years, the Blues have still won 17 major trophies in just under 15 years. Much of their success came while club legend John Terry was captain of the team between 2004 and 2017. The Englishman led Chelsea to five Premier League titles, four FA Cups and of course, the coveted Champions League in 2012 that Abramovich had been chasing for almost a decade. Not bad at all. In more recent seasons though, since Terry's departure, the players in the Chelsea dressing room have been criticised for showing a lack of mentality. THE WRONG MENTALITY Many pundits and fans have put the club's struggles down to players downing tools and giving up when the going gets tough. It's a fair point to make, considering Chelsea's current crop do have the talent to be challenging for another league title - but it hasn't happened so far under Maurizio Sarri. Perhaps then, standards in the dressing room are slipping - and that certainly wouldn't have happened when Terry was still around - as his former teammate John Obi Mikel has revealed. The midfielder, who spent 11 seasons at Stamford Bridge, has lifted the lid on what it was like in the dressing room when Chelsea were losing a game. Unsurprisingly, Terry was the player demanding improvement - and what happened when the team was underperforming sounds absolutely wild. TAKING IT TOO FAR "If we lost a game, we may not speak to each other for a day to show this was not good and tomorrow had to be better," Mikel said in an interview with The Sun. "We were just so hungry. Did we take it a bit too far? Sometimes, yes, we had to. "There were people fighting, grabbing round the neck, JT smashing the table and drinks. If we were losing a game you did not want to be in the dressing room." According to Mikel, whoever the manager was would also come in and say his piece - but then leave the players in the hands of Terry again after. A FIGUREHEAD "The manager would speak and then leave it to JT to carry on. He smashes the whole place up and then we go back out and get the win," Mikel continued. "What he said, we followed. What he did, we followed. We looked at him for a reaction and we followed. "No matter what manager came in, you had to know the figurehead of the club was John Terry." Evidently, Terry was the man that made Chelsea tick on the pitch and even behind closed doors. Right now, it seems the club are missing a player like him in their dressing room.
John Obi Mikel shares insight into 'wild' Chelsea dressing room when Chelsea were losing - YouTube |
| 2 Likes | 2 Dislikes |
| 21 views views | 4,817 followers |
| Entertainment | Upload TimePublished on 9 Feb 2019 |
No comments:
Post a Comment