Babayaro to Mikel: Leave Chelsea now!

Posted by admin Headlines, Soccer, Sports Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

By ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja

Nigerian former junior international, Emmanuel Babayaro, has told Super Eagles midfielder, John Mikel Obi to leave Stamford Bridge Premiership outfit, Chelsea and grab one of the torrents of offers coming his way. The goalkeeper argued that now is the best opportunity for Mikel to secure his future with one of the most attractive cash.

Babayaro, who gave the advice while fielding questions from the journalists in Abuja yesterday warned that having won several trophies with both club and country, now is the best time for Mikel to accept the most attractive offer and leave Chelsea, as he has nothing to prove again.

His words: “I have to advice Mikel to leave Chelsea now. He has to grab the biggest money now and move on with his life. There comes a time he has to end somewhere, somehow. It is up to him as an individual to decide how he wants it to end. He must decide whether he wants it to end low or high. If you ask me, I will say that he is even on the highest, haven won multiple trophies like the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and the African Nations Cup.

“For me, I think this is the best time for him to go because Mikel is not a Briton like Lampard or Terry among others that have the backing of the England FA and highly placed English persons. He must know that he is a Nigerian with limited safety immunity. If we must tell ourselves the truth, Mikel is getting close to that zone, stagnation and diminishing returns. In fact, it has started showing little by little and if you ask me, I will tell you that this is the time he has to go and grab the biggest money and move on towards securing his future,” he advised.

The elder of the Babayaro football family also criticised the plan to map out code of conducts for the Super Eagles players, arguing that it was more of a measure to destabilise coach Stephen Keshi’s team.

“I think that code of conduct for the players belongs to the coach. With all due respect, they should allow coach Keshi to do what he wants to do with the national team. He is in a contract, which entails that he must have the sole responsibility for any of his actions. For me, code of conduct is an exclusive reserve of the coach.”

He noted further that: “As the person in charge of the team, he decides what is good for his team. The coach dictates the mode of his players in camp. While others want the players to smile and joke with him, others don’t tolerate such. The coach knows what he wants and how he goes about getting it. So, code of conduct should be Keshi’s exclusive preserve, not the committee or the administrators,” he argued.

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