Why Rijkaard Could Be The Perfect Man For The Job
So, what we know is that Guus Hiddink has been approached to manage at Chelsea until the end of the season, but what we don’t know is what happens after that.
Personally I still fancy Rijkaard for it. Ok, so I don’t particularly like him but then I didn’t like Mourinho when he was at Porto either but it didn’t take me too long to change my mind there! Rijkaard knows what it’s all about though, he’s already done it at Barca – and he’s young enough and arrogant enough I reckon. The only trouble is, he’s linked to the vacant post at AC Milan – which isn’t vacant yet, but could be if Ancelotti comes our way in the summer instead.
Ancelotti might have turned us down before, and he certainly wouldn’t walk away from Milan mid-season, but with Hiddink in place until the end of the season, the suggestion seems to be that the Milan boss wouldn’t be averse to reconsidering the Chelsea hotseat in a few months. I just don’t know about him though. Of course, the pedigree’s there – two Champions League’s and the Scudetto, but he just doesn’t fit for me. Another detached manager, no doubt more attracted by the salary than the job prospects.
And then there’s Roberto Mancini – another one who ‘hasn’t been approached’, although who’s agent has gone to great lengths to point out how delighted he’d be if he was. Now here’s a manager I really don’t want at Chelsea. As I’ve already mentioned before, if he lost the Inter dressing-room then he hasn’t got a hope in hell of even finding ours to start with.
No, for me, Rijkaard edges it, because not only is he one of the very rare breed to have won the Champions League both as a player and a manager – and managed to do both playing football that really was worth watching – what really swings it is that he inherited a team of underachievers at Barca and coped with the stick, which was duly taken back once he’d cleared out the deadwood and totally transformed them into back-to-back La Liga champions, chucking in a Champions League along the way.
For me, that’s exactly the sort of resilience and determination the next Chelsea manager needs to have because he’ll certainly have a job on his hands.
Filed under: Rants
“if he lost the Inter dressing-room then he hasn’t got a hope in hell ”
“which was duly taken back once he’d cleared out the deadwood and totally transformed them”
….And then proceeded to lose the dressing room at Barca.
Does Rijkaard have any relationship or history with Hiddink? The only reason I ask this is because they are both Dutch. If so, then maybe Hiddink will recommend him to his BFF Abramovich.
Scott - fair play, he might have lost the respect but I don’t recall him having stand-up rows with half his squad. Besides, Mancini’s record hardly covers him in glory does it? No success in the Champions League and only one out of three titles won fair and square - and that wasn’t exactly spectacular either.
The key element about Rijkaard’s Barca reign was that the board didn’t fire him at the first sign of stress - I remember the fans baying for his blood when they lost to Real in the first half of the season - given what happened with Grant and Scolari, I don’t think anyone can be sure about whether Rijkaard will have the time to impose himself onto the club.
There were also rumours of cliques in the Barca camp at the end of his reign, with rumours that the likes of Ronaldinho were treating training as optional. Henry was unhappy, Eto’o seemed unsettled…….the jury is out on whether Rijkaard can fully deal with inflated egos when the going is a little tough…..and you guys have more egos than pretty much any other dressing room in the world.
What about Roy Keane? He would love to take over a big club?