Source: Telegraph
Guus Hiddink on course for Chelsea asylum
The Russian federation kindly granted permission for Chelsea to speak to Hiddink about the vacancy at Stamford Bridge. It is amazing what a polite inquiry through the proper channels can achieve in Russia these days. No need for a word from a billionaire friend of the prime minister. None at all. [LNB]Chelsea is not a hard sell. No factions, no egos, no interference from an omnipotent owner. Who would not want an office in Cobham and Stamford Bridge? Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari were all similarly persuaded. All thought they could do the job and each met the same irrational end. [LNB]Mourinho delivered back-to-back championships. Grant was the width of a post from the Champions League. Scolari's CV had a World Cup emblazoned across it. Seven months ago he was unveiled as the pre-eminent coach in world football, a towering figure commensurate with Chelsea's global vision. All gone. [LNB]Scolari was led away with his arms flailing at his sides, his wordless mouth expelling only air. Grant went quietly without complaint. Only Mourinho left the building screaming. "Let's see who you can get to do a better job than me," were his parting words to Roman Abramovich. They echo around the Cobham training complex still. [LNB]Hiddink has alpha coaching credentials. He arrives as the owner's pick, which ought to stiffen his resolve on the first day in the asylum. On day two, who knows? The others did not depart because they couldn't manage, or because at one point they were not in favour. [LNB]Hiddink inherits an ageing squad suffering with 'but what about me' syndrome. Sir Alex Ferguson, who lobbed the age grenade at Scolari on his first day in the job, is looking more the sage as each day unfolds. Hiddink might want to hit the fast forward button on the tape of the surrender at Old Trafford. [LNB]Nothing to do with the goals conceded, though they were bad enough. Everything to do with a Ryan Giggs cameo at the start of the second half. Giggs takes receipt of the ball just inside his own half and turns away from the United goal towards the Stretford End. [LNB]On 35-year-old legs he accelerates across the halfway line. The man in pursuit is Michael Ballack, head back, legs stretching out, arms pumping. He thundered with the alacrity of a dray horse. Giggs, moving more like a Ferrari than a footballer, left him for dead. [LNB]Hiddink can not give Ballack legs, mend the maudlin mind of Didier Drogba, recast Florent Malouda as Giggs, Salomon Kalou as Dimitar Berbatov. [LNB]The job of turning around a team without width, other than that supplied by full-backs, or a significant change of pace starts and ends with the building of a positive relationship with Frank Lampard and John Terry. Get those two on side and the rest fall into line. [LNB]It helps that Hiddink speaks English. When Scolari needed to reach for the hairdryer, to unleash the invective, to get Kalou and Malouda into gear, the words would not come. He didn't speak the lingua franca of the English changing room. [LNB]That great management mute, Juande Ramos, was struck by the same inability at Spurs. Poor home results against Hull contributed to the sackings of both. They were mirror images of each other, rooted to the touchline powerless to affect a change, struck dumb by their failure to master the language of the country in which they worked. [LNB]Only one caped foreigner can pull that one off. Fabio Capello walked into the Chelsea storm, answering a question in Seville about the well-being of his captain as though Terry needed his hand holding.[LNB]Capello required no assistance from his interpreter to spot the question and dealt with it in his now customary manner. "We talked," he said. He understood the issue absolutely. We understood his response. It was the only inquiry about Terry and his club. [LNB]Let us tip our hats to the stars and thank providence that Abramovich has not inquired about Capello's availability. The transformation he has wrought with the amorphous lump he inherited from Steve McClaren elevates him to the highest rank of operator. [LNB]We shall see how sharp a dude Hiddink proves to be in the sclerotic soup of Stamford Bridge. The melange of divergent interests has pulled the team apart. The fault for that lies with Abramovich, who met a cabal of senior players last week, believed to include Petr Cech, Drogba and Ballack. [LNB]It was the kind of meeting owners are known to have with the manager. Scolari was attending his own funeral at the match against Hull and never knew it. Welcome to Stamford Bridge, Guus. [LNB]
