The Magic of Hiddink

Title: The Magic of Hiddink

Enough has been said by various journalists and pundits about the impact Guus Hiddink has had on Chelsea since he arrived here. I think the best way to illustrate just the enormity of his impact is to take a look at how desperate things were before Abramovich brought him in, and just how exactly he's managed to turn us around.

It's the 7th of February 2009. Chelsea have just drawn 0 - 0 against Hull at Stamford Bridge. More important than the result however was the performance. Hull outfought us, outwitted us and outplayed us for most of the game. Off the pitch their fans out sang us. Their players showed more heart, more spirit, more fight than ours. No one created much, but we didn't seem to be bothered about that. In fact, the match almost seemed like an end of season game where nobody had anything to play for.

Things had gone downhill for Scolari's team. First we'd lost the unbelievable home record, then suffered an embarrassing FA Cup game at home to Southend, drawing 1 - 1. From five games against the rest of the big four, we'd picked up just one point. Hull though, was the lowest point. We fallen behind Villa in the table, and the consensus was if things continued that way, we'd be caught by Arsenal and lose out on Champions League qualification.

Who would've guessed that less than three months later we'd be in the FA Cup final and the semis of the Champions League? All this due to the leadership of one man: Guus Hiddink. He was my personal choice to be brought in over the summer. He had a good managerial career especially at international level, had dealt with big players before and had a great command of the English language. In fairness, Phil Scolari isn't exactly a Sunday League manager, but Hiddink is in a completely different class to him.

What's so different about Hiddink's management style? Firstly, he has the players noticeably fitter than his predecessor. He doesn't take pre match preparation to Mourinho levels, but he certainly puts more emphasis on training hard than Scolari. Secondly, there's his tactical brain. Be it employing Essien to man mark Steven Gerrard out of the Champions League quarter, or bringing on the influential Anelka at a crucial time in the return leg, he may be the only manager who can come up with it.

Not to mention the effect he's had on the players. From what I've heard, every player in the squad is happier with the training under Hiddink. Drogba in particular is a completely new player, going from a sulk who wandered aimlessly around the pitch to his old bulldozing self, challenging for every ball and giving even the best of centre halves nightmares. Florent Malouda, who many Chelsea fans thought was a lost cause, has seen his performances come on in leaps and bounds since the arrival of the new man. This cannot be purely coincidence.

Hiddink is a man who takes extreme pride in his work - his stints with South Korea and Australia prove this. The downside of this for us is that he's determined to lead Russia to the World Cup in 2010. That means we'll lose him come the summer. Whether he wins a trophy or not, his time here will be regarded as a success, and he'll take some replacing.

Unless, of course, Roman gets out his chequebook and persuasive hat, sits down with Hiddink and the Russian FA and somehow manages to secure us the manager nearly everyone at Chelsea (players included) wants to see next season. Fingers crossed!

Written By: carefree

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