Having spent the summer strengthening, Antonio Conte is yet to clear out some of the dead wood at Chelsea.
There are several players whom the Italian clearly has no plans for, even if they are still at the club.
One such midfielder is now ready to take matters into his own hands, with Jon Obi Mikel admitting he plans to talk to potential suitors in January if he isn’t offered a new deal.
Mikel has been at Stamford Bridge for 11 years, but he is now entering the final year of his contract. Now that N’Golo Kante, Nemanja Matic, and Cesc Fabregas are all competing for central midfield spots, it’s difficult to envisage Mikel getting much game time, so he may well be on his way out.
“When you have a year left as a football player, you have to start planning and start thinking about what’s going to happen at the end of the season,” he told Goal.com.
“Yes, there are going to be rumours, yes, there are going to be conversations between clubs.
“When you have a year left, in January, you are allowed to talk to other clubs and sign a pre-contract or have an agreement so, yes, I will talk to other clubs because you never know what is going to happen.”
The midfielder’s downfall may well have been choosing to compete in this summer’s Olympics, where he helped Nigeria to a bronze medal.
That success cost him the start of the Premier League season, and it may now be too late to make an impression on Conte, who seems to have already made his mind up.
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