Ex-Chelsea star reveals he made Man Utd legend Ferguson ‘go red’ with anger as he tried to ‘brainwash’ him
Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has revealed that he made legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson “go red” with anger over a failed move to Old Trafford.
The former Nigeria international announced his retirement from playing football in September 2022 following a successful 17-year career,
After making a name for himself representing Nigeria at the FIFA Under-17 World Championships, Mikel was picked up by Norwegian outfit Lyn after trials at other clubs.
But it didn’t take long for Mikel to impress enough to earn a move to the Premier League with Man Utd announcing in April 2005 that they had struck a deal to take the 18-year-old midfielder to Old Trafford.
They even announced that Mikel had agreed to sign a four-year contract at Man Utd with the deal, which would see the midfielder join in January 2006, reportedly worth an initial £4m.
It turned out that Chelsea had a hand in arranging his transfer to Europe in the first place with a view to signing him in the future and when they got wind of the agreement with Man Utd they stepped in.
He had even been pictured holding up a Man Utd shirt in a hastily-arranged press conference but it was Chelsea who eventually stepped in to seal a deal.
And Mikel revealed to talkSPORT that former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was “not happy” when he found out that he’d agreed to join Man Utd.
“Sir Alex thought he got me, yeah,” Mikel explained to talkSPORT.
“I did the press conference and it was everywhere. Then obviously Roman [Abramovich], everybody at Chelsea saw it and they were like, ‘What’s going on here? We’ve been looking at this player for two or three years now, what’s happening here?’
“Obviously they sent my agent down to Lyn and then he came down to Norway, and then for a couple of hours I went missing. He took me out from my apartment where I used to live with a couple of my friends.
“He was like, ‘We need to go back to London, I need to get you out of Norway right now because what you’ve done right now, it’s so much of a problem with Chelsea and Roman is not happy.’ So my agent took my to a hotel and then the next morning we flew down to London, and the rest was history.
“Then it took me about a year, I couldn’t play for either United or Chelsea because FIFA was like, ‘OK we need to resolve this.’ So I went to FIFA and I was like, ‘I didn’t mean to sign for United.'”
TalkSPORT host Jim White joked that the pen must have slipped in his hand before Mikel recalled an awkward meeting he had with former Man Utd boss Ferguson, who was far from happy.
Mikel added: “Yeah haha [the pen slipped].
“I did have a meeting with Fergie at the FA office in London because the FA also wanted to get involved and was like, ‘We need to get this player playing, he’s a young player, he needs to play football.’
“It was just me and him in a room, yeah that was feisty that. I had my agent sitting outside and he was like, ‘When you go into this meeting, because he’s going to try to brainwash, everything he says, just make sure you say no.’
“So I went into that office, into that meeting, so everything he was saying I was like, ‘Ah, I’m sorry boss, I can’t play for United, it was a mistake, I didn’t mean to sign.’ It was a long table, he was sitting right over there and I was sitting at the edge of the table.
“He was sitting at the other edge, I could see him go red, he was like, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to play for United, the biggest club in the world?’ He’s like, ‘What is it you want, do you want more money? What is it you want, I’ll give it to you.’
“I was like, ‘Sorry boss, I can’t play for United, I want to go to Chelsea.’ So we had about 20 or 30 minutes in the room and he walked off and then that was it.
“He walked away, and then the next couple of weeks he was like, ‘OK, well I’m not going to let him go for free,’ so [Chelsea paid] £14million to United and £4m to Lyn.”
Mikel explained why he chose Chelsea over Man Utd, he continued: “I wanted to go somewhere where I could help create history, if I went to United, I wouldn’t have been part of the team that’s won the Champions League first in London, we were the first team to win it in London.
“For me, it was about creating my own history because I know obviously United were the biggest club. It was really how I felt, I looked at both clubs and, you know, United had won so much.
“So, I needed to go somewhere where I could create history with the players. Back then as well they had the likes of Michael Essien, Didier Drogba, African players going to Chelsea.
“For me, I looked at that and was like, ‘OK, where am I going to feel more comfortable and where am I going to create my own history?'”
