John Obi Mikel insists he’s ready to leave the club if he won’t be given a place as a first-team regular next season, The Sun reports.
The long-serving Nigerian arrived to Stamford Bridge 10 years ago, but has been seen as a rotation player in the recent few years for the Blues.
After spending a disappointing era as an irregular starter under the ex-boss José Mourinho, the 28-year-old expressed his frustration towards the Portuguese manager with strong words.
Despite getting a step back into the starting line-up under the interim manager Guus Hiddink, Mikel won’t sit and wait to see what the next season’s manager has to offer as he wants certain playing time or he’s out.
I have one more season with Chelsea but I know when this season ends, we will definitely sit down and try to sort out whatever needs to be sorted out.
If it means me leaving, fine. If it means me staying, then I have to play because one thing I don’t want to do is to sit on the bench like I did before.
Mikel – who scored in the first leg against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League round-of-16 – has only one year left of his contract with Chelsea, meaning the club would have to sell him this summer to get a fee.
The expected arrival of Antonio Conte will push the Nigeria skipper even further back in the team selection, as the Italian looks to spend big this summer.
Mikel has only missed one of the last 14 top-flight games under Hiddink, but made just 5 outings under Mourinho before his second Chelsea exit.
I think confidence is everything, 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 [Mourinho] 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.
