Fenerbahce director in talks for Chelsea midfielder, apparently

Mikel leaving Chelsea has become a summer tradition over the past few years, and this time is no different.  He's mostly been linked with a rather random move to Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, to be exact), and Al-Ain captain Asamoah Gyan even seemed to hint quite strongly at that move coming true.  Except Gyan himself has since moved to China and it's all gone quite quiet around Mikel.  Until today.

Ersin Düzen: Terraneo şu anda Londra'da Obi Mikel transferi de gerçekleşebilir #FutbolGünlüğü

— Futbol Günlüğü (@trtfutbolgunluk) July 8, 2015

Düzen is some sort of journalist or pundit, as far as I can gather, but he claims that Fenerbahce sporting director Giuliano Terraneo was in London to talk with Mikel (and Chelsea?) about a potential transfer to Turkey.  Fener are trying their best to make some waves in the transfer market (strongly linked with Van Persie, for example), but ever since the whole  made-up quotes episode with Mikel, I've been incredibly skeptical of any rumor or even news coming out of the country.  Still, Mikel leaving makes some sense, considering his injury-hit season of limited first-team involvement.

Mikel, who's moved up to the second place on the active all-time Chelsea appearance list following the departures of Cech and Drogba, has two years left on his current deal.  At 28 years old, this may be the last time we could charge a reasonable transfer fee for his services.