"Our football club back then was run like a mafia" - John Obi Mikel names the manager Didier Drogba wanted sacked at Chelsea

John Obi Mikel has admitted Chelsea players grouped together to get managers sacked during Roman Abramovich's era. He recalled how Didier Drogba wanted Luiz Felipe Scolari gone the striker lost his place in the starting XI.

Speaking to Stadium Astro, Mikel admitted that Dogba was not happy with Nicolas Anelka starting ahead of him. He stated that John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech and the Ivory Coast striker were the spine of the club and ran it like a mafia. He said via TBR Football:

“We started the season really well. I was playing a major part in that,” Mikel said. But all of a sudden we started losing games. Now, when I look back the problem was that the main man wasn’t playing. Scolari preferred Nicolas Anelka over Didier Drogba. When you have such a big ego, a big player, the number one guy and all of a sudden he’s not playing. He’s walking around the training ground, sulking, not happy, walking around grumpy, it wraps around everybody."

“You look at him knowing he’s not happy and it starts to affect the team. That started to affect us, because you know he should be playing, he’s the main man. When we started losing games, you start thinking, the bad period is coming and the main man is not playing. He was sitting there thinking ‘even if I come in the second half, I won’t help you guys, because I want this manager gone. I want the club to bring someone who will favour me, it’s just how it worked,’ Our football club back then was run like a mafia. Didier, Frank, JT, Petr Cech, those guys were the mafia. If they’re not playing they will let the owner know.”

Scolari lasted just seven months at Chelsea before he was sacked – making him the club's third manager in less than a year. Drogba played 21 matches under the manager and scored just three goals, while Anelka scored 17 times in his 33 matches with the Brazilian in charge.

Didier Drogba among players who got Andre Villas-Boas sacked at Chelsea

Didier Drogba was also not on the same page with Andre Villas-Boas at Chelsea. Villas-Boas was sacked by the Blues in March 2012 after a run of three wins in 12 Premier League matches. They were 3-1 down in the UEFA Champions League against Napoli but the sack came after a 1-0 loss to West Bromwich Albion.

Chelsea went on to appoint Roberto Di Matteo and won the UEFA Champions League in May. Didier Drogba scored in normal to equalize against Bayern Munich and then scored the winning penalty in the shootout.