Talk:Mikel John Obi/GA1

GA Review

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch

Reviewer: Lemonade51 (talk · contribs) 15:52, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

With regret, I have chosen to fail this article as I feel it doesn't meet the criteria. Although the article is written somewhat good in parts – particularly the bit on his transfer to England and his first season at Chelsea, it seems a lack of attention on this entry since then shows. Prose needs considerable work, as does referencing. My issues and suggestions are as followed:

• First off, I would advise you to have a look at other football articles, which are of GA or FA standard. Compare the style and structure, look at its reviewing process and take some ideas on board. Bert Trautmann and Thierry Henry are two good examples of how a football player article should be structured.
• The lead is very light. It should act summary for the entire article, but in this case it just states his nationality, club and national team he plays for, the other names he is called all in a single sentence. How did Mikel's interest in football start? How was his early life like; how did he go from Nigeria to Norway? The controversial transfer to Manchester United is a big event in his life, so naturally it would be mentioned in the lead also. There also needs to be a bit on his international career, and his developing career at Chelsea.
• I cannot see a source for his full name, if located, you preferably cite it in the infobox.
• "He had an excellent tournament until Nigeria reached the final", where's the source to back this up?
• Although 'Controversial transfer to England' is fairly well written, I am having problems with the verifiablity of certain sentences. "Mikel told the British media that Chelsea were the club he genuinely wanted to sign for." is one, "Further substance was added to this claim after it was revealed that the player had impressed Chelsea manager José Mourinho while training with the club's first-team squad during the summer of 2004." is another. One sentence says "Mikel stated on Sky Sports News that he had been pressured into signing the contract with United without his agent present...", but the source says otherwise; it doesn't mention the interview took place on Sky Sports News.
• "In the aftermath of the transfer, Morgan Andersen", the article already has mentioned Andersen by his full name, so surname should be used thereafter.
• "On 12 September 2006, Mikel made his first start for Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League", no reference to support this.
• "Mikel received many positive comments for his performance in the match.", by whom? A very generalised sentence.
• Be careful with overlinking. Manchester United have twice been linked, as have Michael Essien and PSG. With regards to the latter, be consistent with how you use to stylise its name – Paris Saint-Germain or PSG?
• "Mikel supplanted the French midfielder Claude Makélélé in the lineup following his departure to Paris Saint-Germain.", why does this warrent a mention in the 2006–07 season section? As far as I'm aware, Makelele left Chelsea in 2008.
• The 2007–08 section is light. There is no source to support "Despite this, he came back strongly to round off what has been a good first two seasons for him at Chelsea.", or any incidents which are stated for that season. Chelsea reached two cup finals, pushed United all the way in the league so Mikel must have had a big part to play. Did Avram Grant utilise him as much as Mourinho did the previous season? If not, why?
• "crushed Wigan Athletic 6–0...edged past", sports journalse! Remember this is an encyclopedia, not a football match report. Take care with describing events.
• "Mikel featured in 28 Premier League campaigns", matches even.
• There are a few dead links, which means information cannot be validated. The cretria also asks for references to be stylised consistently, which in this case they aren't.
• Ref 36, 37 and 38 are BBC Sport articles, not BBC News. 47 and 48 need retrieval and publishing dates. 57 and 58 are examples of Bare URLs – the links are copied and pasted and inserted between the ref tags. The problem with this is they are susceptible to link rots and bots cannot archive them, in the event of domain closures.
• What makes this a high-quality, reliable source?
• I believe a playing style or style of play section is a must for articles aiming for GA or FA standard. See Ashley_Cole#Style_of_play to get a flavour of what I mean.

That is as far as I went reviewing. I would advise you (should you wish to have another crack at GAN) to focus on expanding the lead and condense his time at Chelsea to make sure it goes chronologically and it includes the key events. Go over the sources and make sure the material in the article is covered by the sources. Have the article run by someone here preferably before sending it over here again. I think this entry on Mikel is good in parts, but it can be much more comprehensive and the prose needs fine tuning. Feel free to have this article reassessed if you think the review is wrong.