John Obi Mikel ties up his future with bumper Blues deal

Simon Johnson
7 Jul 2009

John Obi Mikel has committed his long-term future to Chelsea by agreeing a new five-year contract.

Standard Sport revealed in April that Chelsea were going to offer him a massive pay-rise in order to fend off interest from Inter Milan and it is understood the 22-year-old Nigeria midfielder, having established himself as a first-team regular, will now be paid around £70,000-a-week.

His agent John Shittu said: “He will sign the deal early this week. Some of the club officials were away but they were expected back last weekend. As soon as everybody is in, we will sign the new contract.

“It is a very good deal for him and would put him on a par with some of the top earners in the club.”

Mikel, who had only 12 months remaining on his contract, is due to report back for pre-season training next week but is expected to cut short his summer break by a few days to sign the new deal. Chelsea have already secured Florent Malouda on a new contract and Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, Joe Cole and Alex will follow soon.

The Blues have also confirmed they have agreed an £18million deal with CSKA Moscow for Yuri Zhirkov, who has been tipped to make a major impact in the Premier League by Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko.

The 25-year-old will move to Stamford Bridge subject to a medical and finalising personal terms. The club have been chasing him since last summer and Pavlyuchenko believes his Russia team-mate will be a big success here.

He said: “It's a once-in-a-lifetime offer and you have to say yes'. Zhirkov is a great professional. He could become a team leader. The only problem is his knowledge of the English language. If he masters that, all will be well.”

Versatile Zhirkov can play at left-back or left-wing and will have to quickly establish an on-field rapport with Didier Drogba, who new boss Carlo Ancelotti confirmed will still be leading the line. The Italian said: “Didier is a great striker and I want to use his quality for the team. I haven't seen a big striker like him but I like his quality because he's strong.”

The future of two of Drogba's strike partners is still to be decided, with Claudio Pizarro and Andriy Shevchenko returning after loan spells at Werder Bremen and AC Milan respectively.

Pizarro was training at the club yesterday, while Shevchenko will arrive on Thursday, but both players are expected to be moved on.

Shevchenko, who joined for £30.8m from AC Milan in 2006, is in the last year of his contract and knows he is already out of favour with Ancelotti for the Italian only started him nine times during his loan at the San Siro last season.

Ancelotti is keen to get all his players in shape for the campaign as quickly as possible and has ordered they do double training sessions until they leave for their pre-season tour to the USA on 16 July.