'Sir Alex knew that he was not normal' - Mourinho details why he converted Mikel to a DM at Chelsea 

Legendary manager Jose Mourinho has explained why he converted John Obi Mikel to a defensive midfielder at Chelsea. 

The respected Portuguese football tactician was obsessed with defensive midfielders during his time at Stamford Bridge, having brought in the likes of Michael Essien, Mikel, Tiago Mendes, Lassana Diarra and Nemanja Matic.

Mikel was a creative midfielder for the Nigeria national teams but his move to Chelsea saw him moved to the defensive midfield position as understudy to Claude Makélélé. 

Despite starting his career as a number 10, Mikel transformed into a top defensive midfielder and was renowned for his excellent positional sense, physical and passing attributes. 

The retired Nigeria international has argued that he was a better attacking midfielder than a defensive midfielder.

When asked to explain the qualities that he saw in Mikel that necessitated a change of position, Mourinho said on The Obi One Podcast: "In the national team he can be what he wants. I liked everything and if you go through my positional midfield players that I had in my career, there are lots of similar things. 

"A part of Makélélé that was small, I had them all tall and physically strong with a good occupation of the space but then with what I call the simplicity of football, which is fundamental in that position and people sometime confuse the creative player with the simple one.

"In some areas the creative is fine, in some other areas the simplicity is the genius. The team needs balance and they have to give balance when the team has and doesn't have the ball.

"They need to have that discipline to be humble in the sense the team is more important than myself, what I give the team is more important than what the team gives to me and maybe that's why in Nigeria he wants to go and play that number 10, to be the top guy.

"With me at Chelsea he was a fantastic positional midfield player - very quick thinking, one touch, two touches.

"Everything make it simple, the game flowing, he was not a guy to win a race of 100m but everything was fast with him with the ball and understanding the position in the game."

Mikel was presented as a Manchester United player but the move eventually fell through and his transfer to Stamford Bridge came at a cost with Chelsea parting with £16million. 

Mourinho suggested that ex-Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was desperate to sign Mikel because he was an exceptional player. 

"I saw that the first time I saw him. The first time I saw him was quite fun because he was hidden, training at Chelsea, and one day I was asking for a young player to come because I needed a young player to make me work well. 

"They spoke to me about some Nigerian guy that was in Norway. The first question I asked was, 'he's 17, is he strong enough physically?

"They told me he's, so let him come. I was expecting some normal player, I saw immediately he was not normal.

"Of course, Sir Alex knew that he was not normal and then there was a fight that was not normal, but then everything ended in the best way for Chelsea, in the best way for him because in the end he stayed at Chelsea more than 10 years.

"He won everything, he won his money and he could play Nigeria number 10."

Mikel left Chelsea in 2017, having won the Premier League twice, the FA Cup four times, the League Cup twice, and the Champions League and Europa League.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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