Jose Mourinho explains the negatives of coaching two Chelsea midfielders | OneFootball

The John Obi Mikel podcast has done incredibly well for a few reasons.

Most importantly he’s a charming and engaging talker. Secondly, he’s a recent former player who still feels really connected to the game and to Chelsea. Thirdly, because he’s not afraid to say what he thinks – sometimes perhaps getting a little too effusive.

He is also able to get really good guests on – and who better than Jose Mourinho. The “Special One” coached Mikel at Chelsea, and they had plenty of great stories and memories to share. Our favourite part was where Mourinho compared coaching Mikel with coaching Claude Makelele.

“John Obi Mikel or Claude Makelele? Two [players] who were a pain in my a— for different reasons,” Mourinho said with a twinkle in his eye.

“One [Mikel] was a young guy who already thought he was the best in the world but he wasn’t. I had to help him become the top player that he was. The old guy (Makelele) knew more about what a ‘number six’ is than me. He knew more than me. Amazing! But he was in the phase of his career where [he would say]: ‘boss, we have Champions League on Wednesday, can you give me the weekend off?’ Both were amazing.”

You can see the full interview with Jose in the clip embedded here:

One thing we still want to know from Jose

Jose Mourinho chats with John Obi Mikel in Istanbul.

What a laugh. We just wish one thing – we could get Jose’s unfiltered view on what is going on at Chelsea right now with the current owners. He’s probably too diplomatic, and maybe even has his eye on another return to the club in the future. But my god we’d love to hear what he thinks of his winning machine turning into Brighton 2.0.