Hiddink enjoyed a successful spell at Chelsea during his stint at interim manager in 2009 after Luiz Felipe Scolari was sacked. The Dutchman has a win percentage of around 73% during his 22 games in charge and was unfortunate not to take Chelsea to a successive Champions League final, but finished the campaign on a high by winning the FA Cup
Guus did a great job at steadying the ship when he came in and won some silverware, but like the fans, there must be something stuck in his craw about that Champions League semi-final exit against Barcelona and perhaps he’d like to have another crack or two at UEFA’s premier club cup competition. Also, Chelsea could be the last big challenge of his career and it’d be interesting to see what he could do with a whole summer to build a team as he wants it (assuming he’s allowed to).
Hiddink has been an unofficial advisor for Roman Abramovich and Chelsea for the past two years, which hopefully means that the Dutchman has Roman’s ear and we finally have a proper football man calling some shots at Stamford Bridge…we live in hope.
There has been long been rumours of a ‘player power’ problem at Chelsea and although sometimes it may be a hyperbole, some would argue that there’s no smoke without fire. The Blues suffered a slump last season after the exit of Ray Wilkins and many fans believe that losing him had a negative effect on us, it did, but more importantly, I think Carlo Ancelotti lost the respect of the dressing room as he was made to look weak for idly standing by.
Also, the likes of Alex, Florent Malouda and Branislav Ivanovic would be glad to see Hiddink back at the club after he helped give them the foothold which made them stars at the club. Yury Zhirkov is a top player with an uncertain future, but could Hiddink get the best out of him like he did when coaching the player for Russia?
So, Hiddink may only be in the manager’s role for a year or two, but could take a job upstairs as the Director of Football thereafter and the club can appoint a younger manager. The Telegraph has suggested that Abramovich may try to bring back Jose Mourinho in the next 24 months, but although the two are on speaking terms and get on well, it’s by no means a certainty that he’d want to come back after he’s done at Real Madrid.
But he wouldn’t be the only option as Pep Guardiola and Andre Villas-Boas are also on Chelsea’s radar and probably more likely to deliver the attractive brand of football that Roman allegedly desires. Pep knows that he’ll have to cut his teeth outside of Barca to truly prove himself as a manager and as a club, Barcelona are stressful to manage due to the politics there. As for Villas-Boas, the I’m sure the club will keep an eye on how he progresses as a manager over the next season or so and how he performs with his Porto side in the Champions League.