Nigerian international Mikel Agu is set for a play-me or sell-me talk with Portuguese giants FC Porto when he reports for pre-season duties next week
Mikel, who’s contracted to FC Porto until 2021, has spent the last three seasons on loan away from the club but insists he’s now tired of the nomadic lifestyle and would like to either settle down at the club or be sold outright.
“I’m going back to Portugal next week for pre-season and i will use that opportunity to have a discussion with the club. I don’t want to go out on loan again. They’ll have to make a decision about me. It’s either i’m in the manager’s plan or they sell me,” Mikel exclusively told CSN.
The combative midfielder, who’d spent the last three seasons out on loan, expressed his disgust at the way clubs treat their loan players with particular reference to his experience last season at Turkish Super Lig side Bursaspor.
He said: “The way clubs treat you as a loan player sometimes is different from the way they treat their own players. My experience last season at Bursaspor was not good and I have concluded that it’s better to be a second-choice at your own club than in the first team of a loan club. I want to go and fight for my place in Porto. Given a fair chance, I know what I can do.”
Mikel was previously on loan three seasons ago at Club Brugge in Belgium where he won the league and then left the following season for Rashidi Yekini’s former club in Portugal Vitoria Setubal from where he moved to Bursaspor last season.
A last-minute omission from the Super Eagles team which competed at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Mikel is ready to work twice as hard to get back into the team even as he praised the effort of his colleagues who where eliminated after the first round.
“I think the guys gave their best. We saw them fight until the last minute against Argentina. This is a team we can be proud of even if results have not gone our way now. We can build on this performance going forward and I will make sure I work as hard as I have to so I can get back into the team,” he said.