Former Chelsea player Mikel John Obi has detailed the player power at the Blues which may have seen the likes of Andre Villas-Boas and Rafael Benitez sacked.
The Blues have a history of cycling through managers, with former owner Roman Abramovich hiring 12 during his two decades as owner, not including repeat appointments and caretakers, while successors Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital have already hired three permanent managers, and two interims, inside 18 months.
Mikel spent 11 years at Chelsea under eight different managers and only Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti lasted two full seasons before being given the boot. Villas-Boas, for example, was touted as the next Mourinho but lasted just nine months.
The former midfielder says there were four core players who had Abramovich's ear in the dressing room should results start to turn bad and rifts start to form between player and manager; John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Petr Cech.
Asked what happens when the players wanted a manager sacked, Mikel told Rio Ferdinand's Vibe with Five: "The chat happens between the big guys: JT, Frank, Didier and Petr Cech and a little bit of Ashley [Cole].
"It's not like a chat where they go 'we're going to go at you', but the one person we really didn't like was Rafa [Benitez], because he wasn't a Chelsea kind of manager, and AVB.
"AVB was younger than most of the players, younger than Frank, younger than JT, and for some reason, he stopped playing Frank and Frank didn't take that well so there was a little bit of a rift.
"When that happens and you get bad results, players who have been playing but are no longer start talking and the atmosphere was a little bit down, it cycles around and before you know it there is a little bit of talk.
"They stop talking to the manager, not saying 'good morning' and just walk past. That's how they get their message across. The Roman comes in, as Roman only speaks to those guys, and once their story has been told to Roman, then Roman makes the decisions which favours the players."
