Former Super Eagles John Obi Mikel has opened up on players’ influence on Roman Abramovich to sack managers during his time at Chelsea.
Ex-Chelsea owner Abramovich hired 12 managers in the 20 years he was the club’s supremo.
Asked what happens when the players want to get a manager sacked, Mikel told Rio Ferdinand’s Vibe with Five show: “The chat happens between the big guys: JT, Frank, Didier and Petr Cech and a little bit of Ashley [Cole].
“It’s not like a chat where they go ‘we’re going to go at you’, but the one person we really didn’t like was Rafa [Benitez], because he wasn’t a Chelsea kind of manager, and AVB [Andre Villas Boas].
“AVB was younger than most of the players, younger than Frank, younger than JT, and for some reason, he stopped playing Frank and Frank didn’t take that well so there was a little bit of a rift.
“When that happens and you get bad results, players who have been playing but are no longer start talking and the atmosphere was a little bit down, it cycles around and before you know it there is a little bit of talk.
“They stop talking to the manager, not saying ‘good morning’ and just walk past. That’s how they get their message across. Then Roman comes in, as Roman only speaks to those guys, and once their story has been told to Roman, then Roman makes the decisions which favors the players.”