RICHARD WILLIAMSgets the impression that Guus Hiddink is perfectly at home as he prepares for his first game as Chelsea manager this afternoon
GUUS HIDDINK gave an early glimpse of his working methods yesterday when he was asked what, in two days on Chelsea’s training pitch, he had learned about a bunch of players recently suspected of being riven by internal squabbles and accused of using their influence to secure the abrupt removal of Luiz Felipe Scolari.
“I’m not totally naive, although sometimes I like to be naive,” the club’s new part-time, short-term manager said during his first press conference at Stamford Bridge. “I heard about the recent past, so that’s why I’m looking and talking a little bit to see if that was true.”
From the five-a-side matches in training, he said, a manager can learn a lot about his players’ underlying attitudes to each other. “When it’s getting tight, you can’t hide. You can’t make a mask. You can’t be in control. And, when you’re emotional, you show if you’re getting after another player. I haven’t seen that so far. They are respecting each other. In this new start for me, it must be a new start for them as well.”
A cunning old fox of 62 years, Hiddink is hanging his jacket on the peg formerly used by Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari, who were 41, 52 and 59 respectively when they took the job. Roman Abramovich, it seems, is placing an increasing emphasis on experience, particularly in the present troubling circumstances, with the club lying fourth in the league and seemingly engaged in a three-way fight for two Champions League places with a rampant Aston Villa, their opponents today, and a potentially resurgent Arsenal.
The new man brings to the job the lessons of 25 years in management with half a dozen clubs and four national teams, plus a record of honours including victories in the European Cup and the old Intercontinental Cup, as well as a pair of fourth places in the World Cup and six Dutch Eredivisie titles.
Was it a risk, taking on the responsibility of managing Chelsea for three months with no first-hand knowledge of English football, at the same time as continuing his work as Russia’s head coach? “In this business I don’t think it’s important to spend too much time worrying about risks,” he said. “I love the game and working with young, energetic people and I am not so concerned about what might happen in the future or about risks, et cetera. If you think too much about risks then you should sit at home and watch plastic flowers and that’s it.”
Relaxed and amusing, he even poked fun at his interrogators, who had been invited to a rendezvous at eight o’clock in the morning. “I don’t know the journalist’s life,” the Dutchman said. “I don’t know if they’re used to getting up early or if they sleep late in various restaurants.”
Chelsea’s superstars, accused of playing dressingroom politics, will have to be up early to catch this one out. He does not sound like a man ready to listen to excuses, and the players know he has the owner’s backing.
“I will work as I am used to working,” he said. “A manager has power but it’s limited power. When you bring in new ideas, it’s not a revolution at all. The players have to cope with these ideas and they have to execute. They must deliver up to their standard, up to the club’s standard.”
He was willing to acknowledge Abramovich’s much-discussed desire to see the team playing attractive football.
“Results are important but the way Chelsea play is also important,” he said. “Playing an attractive style of football gives more guarantees on results, in my opinion. There was no obligation, no demand from Abramovich but I think we must deliver and get results while not forgetting that style and the way of playing is important as well. I know from the British public that they like to see teams who are playing adventurous football.”
Hiddink’s relationships with his bosses have not always been smooth. Just over 10 years ago he ended his term as Holland’s manager to take over a Real Madrid side filled with stars, but even victory over Vasco da Gama in the Intercontinental Cup – “their first for 37 years,” he reminded us yesterday – was not enough to keep him in the good books of the president, Lorenzo Sanz, who sacked him after a home defeat by Athletic Bilbao.
“There was a bit of a clash between me and the president about playing some players who he liked to have in the squad,” he said. “Okay, then you know what the consequences in a few weeks are. I don’t like those consequences, but I take them.”
As he spoke those words in the bowels of Stamford Bridge, listeners thought they detected faint echoes of the clashes between Abramovich and Mourinho over the manager’s reluctance to play Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack, purchased by the owner at great expense. This, however, is a different environment.
In effect, Hiddink is doing his boss a favour. He has four months in which to pull Chelsea’s league campaign together, to get them to the final of the European Cup, and to make a decent showing in the FA Cup, while taking a few days out for two relatively undemanding World Cup qualifying matches with Russia. Then back to Moscow. Yesterday he made it sound like fun.
