A bit of Reflection.....

After the Newcastle loss, emotions are flying high and we the fans have become even more frustrated, it is truly a trying period for each and every one of us and hopefully it ends soon.

The positions around the top 3 and top 4 are now very crowded and it will very interesting to see how things develop over the course of the season. I was reading through the Match Day thread and the summary thread and I was honestly very surprised that a certain player's name was coming up so frequently - Enter John Mikel Obi..

Even the greatest of cynics of the VC brotherhood seem to be admitting that though this lad (Mikel) is not their favourite player, we have somehow missed him because of his positional ability and as well as that same ability to slow down the tempo of a game which many of us (me too sometimes) have complained about in times past.

So maybe there is a reason why the club renewed his contract after all, maybe he could still play and contribute something to the way this team finally evolves. I have been visiting other blogs in recent times and I observed some other folks have actually always appreciated Mikel even though they are aware of his weakness(s).

What am I driving at exactly?

As the Owner and the board are entering into the reflective mood (hopefully) and brooding over events that have occurred this season and seasons prior, with the view of making changes that will be excellent for the future of our club, we the fans also have the responsibility to think deeply and check our overall attitude to our players and the club we say we love...there's no way Mikel can be as bad some of us have made him look in the past.

I personally think he has had some really good performances with this club and some not very good ones, but then only very few world class players churn out brilliant performances every single time they touch the ball and for me, his good performances are far more than the bad ones.

The best part of this season for me is that every single stake holder at this club who deeply loves the club seem to have something new to learn about 'loving the club'. After the posts to let out our frustration as a result of recent results, maybe we could also take some time out to think deeply about how we can better love the club and appreciate the players.

Mikel has been fantastic at Afcon where the Nigerian team is actually built around him (I was surprised too!) and I wish him and the team all the best against Didi and Kalou's Ivory Coast later today even though I think we need him back at Chelsea pretty soon.

Asides the fact that the players in the pivot are not crisp in their passing and probably not as disciplined as we would have liked, it is never easy for a near 35 year old to play a match every three days and I am referring to Frank Lampard.

The lads are giving their all giving the circumstances, gross lack of team depth and a coach who many of us cannot seem to understand. We are all pointing fingers at everything and everyone when we ourselves are extremely dysfunctional in the way we support the club and its players, maybe we should take a deep looking at ourselves first before we continue pointing those fingers as there are still four months left that might give us more opportunity to point fingers.

I am guilty as well and I do acknowledge these things are sometimes difficult especially when our emotions are involved. Hopefully we have all got the level of maturity required to pause, think and reflect. It`s probably not the best way to end an article but I take a bow all the same.

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