John Obi Mikel has claimed Jadon Sancho “deceived” Chelsea fans “with a good couple of games” after joining on loan from Manchester United.
Sancho fell out with Erik ten Hag and was loaned out to former club Borussia Dortmund for the second half of 2023/24.
He impressed – particularly in the Champions League – for Dortmund and earned a loan move from Man United to Chelsea last summer.
There is a buy obligation worth around £25million in the agreement with Ruben Amorim’s side.
Sancho started pretty well in his first month or two at Stamford Bridge but his form has been below-par in recent months.
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This has not gone unnoticed by Chelsea hero Mikel, who believes the 24-year-old has “deceived us with a good couple of games” and since “disappeared off the grid”.
The former midfielder said: “I watched the games, the game against West Ham was even worse than the game against Brighton. Against Brighton, there was no character, there was no intensity, there were no leaders on the pitch.
“There was no one telling Jadon Sancho, ‘Sancho, the first goal you should have tackled for that.’ There was no one telling Sancho, ‘What the f*** are you doing?’
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“He’s deceived us with a good couple of games; we thought, ‘Oh f****** hell, now we’re getting this Jadon Sancho from Dortmund.’ But he’s gone again.
“He’s disappeared off the grid. He takes the ball, he doesn’t go past people anymore, he doesn’t create chances anymore; you know he doesn’t help the team as much as he should be.”
Mikel then pleaded with the club’s sporting director Paul Winstanley and co-owner Todd Boehly to sign a new striker.
“Paul Winstanley, I know you’re watching, you’re listening please, and Todd Boehly, please we need a striker,” he added.
“Nicolas Jackson is a fantastic guy, a fantastic striker, but he needs help. It’s not just his form, not just his goalscoring; what happens when he gets injured?
“We’ve seen it here now, and we’ve come into the crucial part of the season where we need to win games and we need to win games.
“They’re not bad players, but they need to do more; they need leaders, they need somebody who’s going to hold them by the f****** neck and say, ‘Listen, wake the f*** up, mate.’ You need a f****** leader who is going to say, ‘Wake up, wake the f*** up.’
“They are too soft. That’s what I mean. I know I keep going back to when we were at the club, but that’s something that helped us.
“When you’re not doing things right, JT [John Terry] calls you in, goes to maybe meet you in the gym, maybe meets you by the pool area, and says, ‘Listen, what’s happening? You need to do more. The club needs you to do more because we win games here.’”
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