By: Omar Jatta
Since the departure of Jose Mourinho from Chelsea yesterday afternoon, Speculations has been raved about his possible replacement. Many pundits believe former Dutch manager, Guus Hiddink might be the favourite on a temporary base till likely the end of the season, when the club and Roman Abramovich will look into ways of wooing his personal favourite, Bayern Munich’s Spanish coach Pep Guardiola to London. It’s an open secret that the former Barcelona manager is the Chelsea owner’s favourite candidate and there were speculations of an attempt to bring him to the club in the past, before the Spanish manager chose to go to instead Bayern.
Now there are reports circulating in the sports columns online, quoting a former Blues striker, Mateja Kezman of saying he was told by Hiddink that ‘he is the new Chelsea manager.’
“I don’t know if it has been officially confirmed yet, but Hiddink just told me he was the new coach,” Kezman, who played for Chelsea in the 2004-2005 season, was quoted as saying by Croatia’s www.index.hr website.
“Hiddink is a great expert and an even better psychologist, hence I am confident he will get Chelsea back to winning ways in the Premier League and go all the way in the Champions League,” added Kezman.
“I am not surprised with (Chelsea owner) Roman Abramovich’s decision to sack Mourinho.
“Jose is an outstanding coach but the club’s results and position in the Premier League standings are well beneath a club of Chelsea’s stature.”
Chelsea are 16th in the Premier League and one point above the relegation zone after 16 games. They are also still in the FA cup and the Champions league, where they will face Paris St Germain in the last 16 in February.
Hiddink had a previous spells at the club as interim manager after taking over from Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari which makes him the obvious choice to replace Mourinho. He won the 2009 FA Cup with the Blues in his brief.
He quickly won the hearts of the club’s fans who pleaded with Abramovich to sign him on a permanent deal during their final home league game that season, a 2-0 win over Blackburn Rovers, but the Russian billionaire opted for Italian Carlo Ancelotti while Hiddink went on to coach Turkey, Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala and most recently his native Netherlands.
His last job ended badly as he parted company with the Dutch national team after a poor start in Euro 2016 qualifying, with his assistant and replacement Danny Blind unable to turn around their fortunes as they failed to reach next year’s tournament in France.
The 69-year-old Hiddink faces a difficult task to get Chelsea’s Premier League campaign back on track after what Kezman described as a catalogue of errors by Mourinho.
“The biggest mistake Mourinho made was during the summer transfer window, as he failed to reinforce the squad thinking it was still good enough to win the title again,” said the former Serbia striker.
“Also, it is shocking that he made public his dressing-room clashes with the players and it seems he was ill-prepared to deal with the situation.
“Jose has won it all in club football and is used to capturing trophies with the best teams, but he lost the handle in this nightmare of a situation.
“He just didn’t know how to get the club out of the mess they are in.”
