#360view: Chelsea need Hiddink's TLC

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  • Arrival: Guus Hiddink.

    Guus Hiddink has been a gun for hire for the best part of 10 years, a managerial mercenary seen as a safe pair of hands. In that time frame he has taken seven jobs: Australia, Russia, Chelsea (twice), Turkey, Anzhi and the Netherlands. But with each, his lustre has slipped a little, culminating in his part in the Netherlands’ failure to qualify for Euro 2016.

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    Taking over a team who finished third at the World Cup, Hiddink led De Oranje to a record of four wins, five defeats and one draw during which Johan Cruyff branded the football so bad “it hurts the eyes”. Ronald De Boer added in October, 2014: “I don’t see a game plan at the moment. Hiddink is done, because his ideas are old fashioned.”

    Nine months later Hiddink had resigned amid further claims he was unable to trust the younger talent in the Dutch squad and his heart was never really in it. He now steps into the Chelsea job not so much as a firefighter but a man to soothe the burns of the towering inferno that was Jose Mourinho.

    In 2009, he performed a similar task at Stamford Bridge following the sacking of Luiz Felipe Scolari, losing just one game in leading the Blues to lift the FA Cup and the Champions League semi-finals.

    Given that, and his enduring friendship with Roman Abramovich the appointment seems sensible, if a little unimaginative. But the character of the Blues squad is very different than the one six years ago.

    Then the team was heavy on leadership with Petr Cech, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack. Terry is all that remains and is a fading force, at least defensively, no longer an automatic selection.

    Outside of the 35-year-old, who else is there with the same presence on the field? Senior pros Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard, Branislav Ivanovic, Nemanja Matic and Diego Costa have shown little stomach for this season, nor appeared to provide sufficient guidance for the younger members of the squad.

    Hiddink will likely have to get his hands a little dirtier this time, restoring the confidence of several individuals totally shattered by Mourinho.

    But this is where the 69-year-old, who will be the Premier League’s oldest manager by three years, comes into his own. He’s a classic ‘arm-round-the-shoulder’, easy going coach, who represents an antidote to Mourinho’s intensity and tough love.

    Tactically, there are question marks over his suitability and to anticipate a similar run of results as 2009 is expecting far too much, but Chelsea will now target the Champions League and FA Cup.

    Hiddink’s arrival is the fifth time Abramovich has installed a temporary man in charge of the first team. In each of the previous four occasions, the Blues have reached a cup final or at least won a trophy.

    As maddeningly short-term and inconsistent Abramovich is with his managers, he has still invested in a richly talented group of players and encouraged a structure of recruitment that ensures a manager can take over with little need for widespread squad surgery. Hiddink’s reign will again be short and sweet but silverware is not out of the question.

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