John Obi Mikel has made a bright start to life at new club Stoke City after netting in a 5-1 hammering of Shrewsbury Town in a pre-season fixture.
The former Super Eagles captain made his debut for the Championship outfit on Tuesday and restored the lead for The Potters at the club’s Clayton Wood training ground.
Mikel joined Stoke on a free transfer earlier this month and the 33-year-old made his impact known in the opening 45 minutes by restoring his team’s lead from a Shrewsbury equaliser.
The former Chelsea star got replaced in the 45 minutes when Stoke were 2-1 up and goals from Benik Adfobe, Tom Ince and Tyrese Campbell completed the rout for Michael O’Neil’s side.
O’Neill singled out the former Nigeria captain for praise after making his impact felt in the team.
“John’s been great in his first few days. You can see his quality, there’s no doubt, people in the group see his quality,” he was quoted by Stoke Sentinel.
“He has to get up to speed. He worked very hard on Saturday morning (when we had a game in the afternoon), as did Steven Fletcher and Ryan Shawcross.
“I think when you bring a player of that quality in it’s going to improve you and that’s what we’re always looking to do, looking to improve the squad, improve the quality in the squad and John does that.”
Mikel will now be looking forward to his new club’s 2020-21 Championship campaign which starts on September 12 with a trip to Millwall.
