Source: Daily_Mail
Is Chelsea boss Hiddink preparing to swap John Terry for Robinho?
Guus Hiddink has revealed that he once tried to sign Robinho when the Manchester City[LNB]striker was still a teenager. [LNB]The Chelsea manager, who takes on the Brazilian when he lines up forManchester City today, was close to securing the striker as a19-year-old playing for Santos when he had already been outlandishlycompared to Pele.[LNB][LNB] Swap: Robinho spearheads Manchester City's attack against Chelsea[LNB] CHELSEA FC: All the latest news from across the web[LNB]MANCHESTER CITY FC: All the latest news from across the web[LNB]Hiddink: Terry will always be a Chelsea boy, not a City gent[LNB]With Hiddink now advising Chelsea on transfer targets, it again raises the scenario of the Brazilian finally joining the London club at the end of the season, after he signed for Manchester City for £30 million in August despite having been courted by Chelsea[LNB]throughout last summer. [LNB]Hiddink spent much of this pre-match preparation denying that Chelsea would ever sell captain John Terry to City, not even for the £30m which was offered in January, but it remains to be seen whether the London club could resist a swap deal for the Brazilian this summer. [LNB]Hiddink is aware that Robinho would offer Chelsea the pace they lack, while Robinho will not tolerate playing in a team whose principal ambitions merely centre on UEFA Cup qualification. [LNB]Last August, Robinho accepted City's last-minute offer rather than hold out for his initial club of choice, Chelsea, on the advice of his then agent Wagner Rebeiro. [LNB]Hiddink's account of his attempts to sign Robinho in 2004 implied that his advisors were prone to taking decisions based on the amount of money on offer rather than the longer-term benefit of his career. [LNB]Hiddink said: 'I had a plan when I was manager of PSV to sign Robinho and I met him in Brazil. We had a plan to have him at the club, like we had Romario and then Ronaldo. [LNB]Before going at that age to the big leagues, like the Spanish league and the Premier League, it's good to go to another league where they can get Champions League football but at a different level.[LNB][LNB] Hard bargain: Terry may have to be part of the deal[LNB]'I was really close to having him at that time but at the last moment Real Madrid came and then you are out-played, of course. What I like to say is that players must choose for their career. Their managers and agents have the responsibility to pick out a club for a career not always for where the money is, where there is more money than in other clubs.' [LNB]Having left the reigning Spanish champions and biggest club in world football last August and having rejected last season's Champions League finalists and Premier League runners-up to join a club that last won a trophy in 1976, some might suspect Hiddink was making a point that was as pertinent to last summer's decision. [LNB]Asked whether he felt Robinho was now at the right club for his career, Hiddink said: 'I think Manchester City have a lot of plans. Let's see what the future brings.' [LNB]But Piet de Visser, who was the chief scout at PSV Eindhoven who worked with Hiddink to bring Robinho the Dutch club in 2004 and is now personal footballer advisor to Roman Abramovich, was perhaps closer to the truth when asked the same question. [LNB]'I think he thought Manchester City would take Kaka and then it did not happen,' he said. [LNB]Desperate: Hiddink wants Robinho[LNB]The doomed pursuit of Kaka and David Villa in the January transfer window revealed how naive City owner Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan and his advisors, Simon Pearce and Garry Cook, have been in their player recruitment. [LNB]De Visser, 74, is the acknowledged specialist in scouting young Brazilian footballers and discovered Romario and Ronaldo and took then to PSV to be nurtured. [LNB]Now reunited with Hiddink through employment by Abramovich, he well remembers first setting eyes on the scrawny 16-year-old but also recalls that it was PSV's reluctance to spend £6m on a teenager that was just as important in the failure to secure the transfer as any economic considerations on the part of the player and his advisors. [LNB]'Robinho was a great talent,' said De Visser. 'I saw Romario, Ronaldo and Robinho at 16 years old and Ronaldo was a little bit more of a killer than Robinho, scoring more goals. Robinho is more of a second striker and a winger. [LNB]'To become like Ronaldo and Romario, he now needs to take another step. He has to step up to become a great player. He has scored a lot of goals as second striker but he is still a little bit brilliant one game and not so good the next. [LNB]'Guus and I wanted him very much but the PSV directors would not come up with the money. We were very close to getting him but the price was nine million euros and the directors said it was too much for a young player. [LNB]'We thought he was worth it and it was very disappointing. Madrid eventually paid 24 million euros because by the time they bought him he had made his debut for the national team. So PSV lost a lot of money.' [LNB]One thing is almost certain: with today's game a potential audition for Robinho's exit strategy from City, we are more than likely to see the best of the Brazilian. [LNB]Meanwhile, Manchester City captain Richard Dunne has upped the ante for this afternoon's match by accusing modern referees of being biased towards players like Didier Drogba, while clamping down unfairly on defenders who make wellintentioned tackles. [LNB]Dunne, who has been sent off a record eight times in the Premier League, said new rules introduced to protect skilful players were spoiling the game. [LNB]'Things should be fairer for defenders,' he said. 'We're not the ones diving around, but it's us who are being booked and sent off. [LNB]'It's making the game less enjoyable, not just for defenders, but for supporters as well. I'm not an admirer of how Didier Drogba plays the game. It's frustrating when you see your opponent testing the referee - and doubly so when you see a defender get an immediate yellow card for a tackle that is not dangerous. [LNB]'Sometimes you can go for the ball and the centre-forward is good enough to beat you. That's not dangerous play, it is just a little bit late. But nowadays it's a yellow card straight away, even if there is no intent to foul your opponent. [LNB]'Fans seem to understand the difference between a bad challenge and an unintentional one and you just want referees to see it, too. It makes defenders think twice about even attempting a tackle in the penalty area.'[LNB] [LNB]
