Ex-Chelsea man claims his team-mates ‘didn’t accept’ Benitez and Terry ‘decided’ his fate | OneFootball

John Obi Mikel and Rafa Benitez ahead of a substitution.

John Obi Mikel admits the Chelsea players “didn’t accept” Rafa Benitez from the day he arrived at Stamford Bridge with John Terry ultimately deciding he wanted the former Liverpool boss sacked.

The Spaniard was a hugely unpopular choice among Chelsea fans to replace Roberto di Matteo as manager in November 2012 with the ex-Valencia boss spending six months being jeered by the Blues supporters.

Despite that, Benitez managed to win the Europa League and secure a third-placed finish in the Premier League before departing at the end of the campaign.

His association with rivals Liverpool and the comments he’d previously made about Chelsea saw the fans against the appointment and Mikel has revealed how most of the players followed suit.

When asked on talkSPORT whether the Chelsea players were ‘not having the Spaniard’ at Stamford Bridge, Mikel responded: “No, we were not.

“We made that clear. I think obviously Liverpool was a big rival for us, but coming into the club as well, I think the fans also didn’t like Rafa.

“I think there was something about Rafa and the fans that the fans didn’t take to him. Same as the players, we didn’t accept him as one of us.”

Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba were among the Chelsea legends at the club during Mikel’s time at Stamford Bridge and the former Nigeria international has revealed how Terry’s influence eventually got Benitez sacked.

“Then we had the thing with JT where JT got dropped, JT wasn’t playing as much as he wanted. Obviously JT always played and Rafa comes in and was like ‘you’re not going to play every game’.

“Obviously JT wanted an explanation, ‘why am I not played?’ and Rafa didn’t give him that.”

Mikel added: “JT got together by himself and decided yeah, your time is gone!” he replied, with White, Jordan and Murphy bursting out laughing as a result.

Delving deeper into Terry’s role at the club at the time, Mikel continued: “I think, obviously, one man that actually absolutely did run it was John Terry. JT was the man. In a good way. On the pitch, JT was the man.

“Sometimes, when the dressing room was not together, he was the guy that always brought us together. On the pitch, off the pitch, he was the leader.

“Like you’ve just said, there’s too many players there with big egos. The likes of Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Peter Cech, Ashley Cole. You know, everyone has their opinion.

“But at the end of the day, JT was the guy who made the decisions.”