These stories are samples pulled from external media sources. They do not represent the views or position of Chelsea Football Club.

Ziyech’s leadership skills lauded

Youness Mokhtar, a former team-mate of Hakim Ziyech at Twente, believes Chelsea have acquired a leader in the Morocco winger and has tipped him to make a positive impact when he arrives at Stamford Bridge, Goal.com reports.

Mokhtar formed a good impression of Ziyech when he played alongside him during the 2014/15 Eredivisie season.

‘He has the characteristics to be a captain. He is a leader. If things are not going well, he tries to lead and show what he’s got and to make the team better,’ said Mokhtar to Football.London.

‘You have to win his trust. If you are an honest guy with him, he will give you all of him. And he wants to tell you the truth.

‘Especially with the media, sometimes if you are telling something that’s not true about him, he will remember that and keep that in his mind and his heart. He’s not a boy who forgets things quickly. If you fly straight with him, you will see that he’s a very nice guy.’

Mokhtar, who now plays for Major League Soccer side Columbus Crew, also revealed there is a humorous side to Ziyech’s personality.

‘He likes to make jokes. He likes to do both [jokes and pranks],’ said the 29-year-old.

‘He used to do things like put Vaseline in your shoes, and we had a locker in the dressing room, and he’d put Vaseline on the handle or put water inside the locker so when you opened it you’d get wet. Those kinds of things. Funny things.’

Chelsea remains London’s most valuable football club

Despite experiencing a drop in value during the 2018/19, Chelsea are still the top London club in the annual listing of Europe’s most valuable clubs compiled by KPMG.

The 2020 ranking showed a drop in the enterprise value of the Blues resulted in the club’s position in the overall standings slipping from sixth to seventh as Liverpool jumped up two spots from seventh to fifth.

However, we remain ahead of three other sides from the capital with Tottenham Hotspur in eighth place, Arsenal in 10th and West Ham in 18th.

There is no change at the top of the overall ranking from last season with Real Madrid in first place, followed by Manchester United in second.

Barcelona overtook Bayern Munich to move up to third while Liverpool’s Champions League triumph saw them move above Manchester City and Chelsea into fifth place.

Ex-Marseille boss recalls Drogba-Mido bust-up

Former Marseille manager Jose Anigo has spoken about an altercation between Didier Drogba and Mido in 2004 after the Ivorian took exception to a joke the Egyptian played on a flight stewardess, TalkSport reports.

The incident allegedly happened when the French side were returning home from Italy after eliminating Inter Milan in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

‘We were coming back from a European tie. Mido used to play some bizarre jokes,’ said Anigo to RMC Sport.

‘He played one on the stewardess, and Didier didn’t appreciate it. He remonstrated with Mido, and things became very heated between the two of them.

‘We were up in the air, and I can tell you the plane shook! They caused turbulence.

‘They were a couple of heavyweights. Normally they were friends, but at that point tempers flared between them.’

Both players left Marseille at the end of that season with Drogba signed by Chelsea and Mido joining Roma before he moved on to Tottenham Hotspur in 2005.