Source: Telegraph
Guus Hiddink's challenge to galvanise Chelsea
Fifteen months ago, having lost to Steve McClaren on aggregate in a European Championship qualifying head-to-head (home wins for first England and then Russia left the score McClaren 4 Hiddink 2), he supervised the loss of a potentially crucial point though an Israeli substitute's late winner in Tel Aviv and was rescued only when silly England, with whom Croatia would have been only too happy to draw at Wembley, let Mladen Petric take all three points 13 minutes from the end of the campaign. [LNB]Instead of suffering a blot on his curriculum vitae, Hiddink, who had previously supervised bright tournament performances by South Korea and Australia, was able to do the same with Russia in Austria and Switzerland, maintaining his reputation in the land of Roman Abramovich. [LNB]Hence the Russian owner's apparently brisk decision-making in the light, or murk, of the final weeks of Luiz Felipe Scolari's stewardship at Stamford Bridge. Out went Scolari, pursued not so much by a bear – Abramovich seems to have been gentlemanly in paying the Brazilian the full 18 months, or £7.5 million, left on his contract – but a pack of hyenas. Rumour has it there was little left of his managerial corpse by the time certain senior players had briefed Abramovich. [LNB]According to John Terry, he and Frank Lampard were still taking a kinder view of Scolari when the failure of another attempt to recreate the excitement of the early Jose Mourinho era was acknowledged. It always seemed more of a gamble than Chelsea needed to take. Mourinho, let us not forget, came from Porto a newly crowned European champion who had collected the Uefa Cup the year before. [LNB]Scolari, though he had won the World Cup with Brazil and taken Portugal to a European final, was no more experienced on the European club stage than his frequently derided predecessor, Avram Grant, had been. As I concluded here at the start of the season: ''Scolari has a bit to prove.'' [LNB]So what are the chances of Hiddink saving Chelsea's season with a major trophy? He, like Mourinho, has won the Champions League, although it was called the Champions' Cup then because the year was 1988. After 120 scoreless minutes, PSV Eindhoven prevailed 6-5 on penalties over Benfica, whose Veloso had his kick saved by Hans van Breukelen. To take the European title again after a gap of 21 years would be quite something, but the players who nearly did it for Chelsea last year are still around, with the exception of Claude Makelele. [LNB]Whether Hiddink will be able to galvanize them sufficiently is another matter. Lately, too many have appeared to show the strain of having contributed to Euro 2008: the Portugal pair of Deco and Jose Bosingwa, for example, and Germany's perennial runner-up Michael Ballack. Then there is the politics at the Bridge. This is often a problem at a club where there are too many old, or mature, players, all too aware of the ticking of the clock and irascible, like Roy Keane towards the end at Manchester United. [LNB]This is very different from what Hiddink has been doing for most of the past decade or so. The Chelsea squad are not united by national pride like the Koreans or Australians or even Russians. Hiddink must quickly fire them with a genuine belief that a trophy can yet be lifted this season. [LNB]Among his first tasks must be an assessment of whether Didier Drogba has the fitness and morale for the fray. Then he must find some width. Given that the winter window has closed, it must come from within and a switch to three at the back and wing-backs would not surprise me. [LNB]Domestically, the gap between Chelsea and the leaders is seven points, though Hiddink said on Thursday that it was 10 points so he must be assuming Manchester United will win their match in hand against Fulham on Wednesday. By coincidence, 10 points is precisely the margin by which Hiddink, back at PSV, won his most recent domestic title, in 2006 – when he was also in charge of Australia. [LNB]So riding two horses does not seem to bother him, even though his temporarily looking after both Chelsea and Russia does tend to suggest that football management might not be quite as stressful an occupation as some find it. [LNB]The previous season had seen PSV threaten to repeat their European feat of 1988. Hiddink had a team of faces that were to become familiar to us: Alex, now reunited with him at Chelsea; Heurelio Gomes, now of Tottenham; Wilfred Bouma of Aston Villa; Ji-Sung Park of Manchester United; Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink of Celtic. [LNB]After losing 2-0 to Milan at San Siro, they reduced the leeway by virtue of an early goal from Park and, after Phillip Cocu had equalised, took the lead through the same player. There were 12 minutes on the clock; 11 had gone when Massimo Ambrosini broke Dutch hearts. [LNB]Narrow margins again. And the sort of agony Milan were to endure when Liverpool clawed back a three-goal deficit in the Istanbul final. What Abramovich and Chelsea cohorts clearly hope is that Hiddink will be able to drive Chelsea, as he did PSV and the Koreans and the Australians, to the limits of their endeavour, restoring spirit and excitement to what had become a rather flat Stamford Bridge. [LNB]His first home match piquantly involves Juventus, coached by the former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri. But first there is a particularly hazardous Premier League visit to Villa Park, where Martin O'Neill's men will be anxious to prove it is not just Arsenal they intend to leave trailing but, if at all possible, Chelsea too. [LNB]This will be a test of character or, more precisely, Hiddink's ability to summon it from a team. While not quite understanding Gianfranco Zola's remark that the Dutchman merits sympathy – not when his predecessor is said to have collected £10 million for little over half a season's work – I do believe it is one of Hiddink's tougher challenges. [LNB]What if . . . like Guus Hiddink, all football managers had to do two jobs [LNB]Arsene Wenger: manager of Arsenal and optician.Gareth Southgate: currently in charge of Middlesbrough; part-time scarecrow.Harry Redknapp: gaffer at Tottenham Hotspur and second-hand car dealer ("If you don't like it, I'll buy it back for twice the money").Roy Hodgson: touchline chief of Fulham and Hawwods doorman.Sir Alex Ferguson: icon at Manchester United, also hairdresser.Rafael Benitez: Liverpool manager and impressionist (David Brent, David Gest).Ricky Sbragia: Sunderland head honcho and freelance Scrabble solution.Gary Megson: Bolton Wanderers chief has a sideline as a nightclub bouncer.Sam Allardyce: Blackburn Rovers manager and body double for Shrek.Gianfranco Zola: West Ham's nice guy is also a widely beloved ice-cream salesman.Sven-Goran Eriksson: Mexico's coach is a popular and pricey sperm donor. [LNB]By Andrew Baker [LNB]
