John Obi Mikel unleashed a huge verbal tirade against Enzo Maresca due to comments made before Chelsea’s humbling last weekend.
The Blues’ crushing 3-0 defeat at Brighton last Friday has all-but extinguished any lingering hopes for the Premier League title.
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Meanwhile, recent bad form has seen the Blues drop out of the Premier League’s top four.
In their last nine Premier League matches, the West Londoners have managed to secure only two victories, suffering four defeats along the way.
Despite this, the Italian tactician suggested before the loss to the Seagulls — who had already knocked his team out of the FA Cup with a 2-1 victory the previous week — that his squad is actually ahead of schedule in their development.
This comes with the ex-Leicester boss being tasked with delivering Champions League football within two years of taking the helm last summer. Currently, his team stands sixth in the table, just a point shy of fourth place.
“The club asked to play Champions League in two years,” Maresca told Sky Sports. “If we are able to bring this club after one year, it will be fantastic.
“It’s very important for sure [Champions League qualification],” he added. “First of all for the club, for the fans, because this club belongs to the Champions League. Then for a while, we didn’t play Champions League, we didn’t compete for important titles.
“The only thing I can say is that now we are in the right process, we are in the right direction. Chelsea has never been top four in the table in the last two years.
“This season, we spent almost all our season top four at least. So that shows that we are in the right direction. For sure it’s not enough because we want to bring this club where this club belongs.
“As I said, that is Champions League. We’re going to try to do our best and if we are able to do that, we’re going to be very happy. Otherwise, we’re going to try next year.”
However, Mikel did not hold back in his passionate critique of Maresca’s remarks during his latest Obi One podcast, dropping an astonishing 18 F-bombs in the whole show.
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Mikel said: “‘Who the f*** has told them that? Are you f****** kidding me? This is Chelsea Football Club.
“You can’t be ahead of the f****** schedule, this is the f****** Chelsea Football Club, no disrespect to Leicester where he’s coming from, this is f****** Chelsea Football Club. We are a Champions League football club, that’s what we are.
“He can’t come out and say if the club employs you, if they’ve told you that. No, mate. This is a Champions League football club. We’ve always been in the Champions League.
“I can swear to you right now I’ve never watched a f****** game in the Conference League. I’ve never watched it, I don’t care about it, that’s not who we are.
“We are a Champions League football club. So for me, for him to come out and say we’re ahead of schedule, no you are not. We should be there.
“I think that comment that the manager made about us not being contenders to win the Premier League has got into the players’ heads, and the whole thing since then has been a f****** disaster. We have no clue what we’re doing.”
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Mikel also aimed his frustrations at Manchester United loanee Jadon Sancho, who has struggled to find form since his summer move to Stamford Bridge, which includes an obligation to purchase for a reported fee of £23million.
Sancho enjoyed a fruitful loan spell at Borussia Dortmund during the latter half of last season, yet he has only managed two goals and six assists in 22 appearances with the Blues.
Mikel added: “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?’
“He’s [Sancho] 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.
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“Paul Winstanley [sporting director], I know you’re watching, you’re listening please, and Todd Boehly [co-controlling owner and chairman], please we need a striker.
“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.’
That led to another intense evaluation of current Chelsea captain Reece James, who has faced a string of injuries over the past four years and has struggled to reclaim his former brilliance on the pitch.
Mikel added: “Ah, f*** that, no, you think Reece James is going to speak to Enzo Fernandez? No, I don’t see that happening.
“Reece James needs to do more as a captain; you can only do more through your performances, by being on the pitch, showing leadership. He’s been injured for half of his career at Chelsea.
“You can’t go and say to a player, ‘You know, you need to do more.’ No, you need to be on the f****** pitch. That’s a disaster if we fail to qualify for the Champions League. I will view this season as a massive, massive disaster.
“December is not a f****** time to drink red wine and have turkey. You can enjoy your Christmas, but we knew back then that this is the test when you need to win the Premier League.
“It’s not a holiday period. It’s never a holiday period. So to win two out of ten [eight Premier League matches after Christmas] since then is a huge, huge disappointment. I just hope we find our way back.
“Cole Palmer, his form has dipped a little bit, but the guy can’t do everything alone. The pressure should always be on the owners.
“They bought this football club with the sole purpose of winning not making a profit. If you buy Chelsea Football Club and think you are here to make a profit, no mate, you can f*** off, you can f*** off.
“You need to win trophies. You can make your profit, but you need to win trophies.”
Chelsea’s next match is on Saturday as they travel to Aston Villa, who are currently five points behind the Blues.
