Hiddink shows he’s a ‘Special One Two’

THE actual match was secondary on Sunday as for once the Chelsea crowd were unanimous in their sentiments and wanted to ensure that Roman Abramovich heard it loud and clear.

The man of the hour was left in no doubt what the Chelsea faithful wanted – there were songs pleading for Hiddink to stay, banners expressing the same, and chants about where exactly you could stick Ancelotti.

It has been evident for some weeks now that Hiddink wants to stay at Chelsea, but being a man of his word, feels he needs to complete his work for the Russian team (to avoid a polonium umbrella up the jacksie if nothing else!) before he decides what his future holds.

One thing is for certain, the excellent job he has done at Chelsea within three months will ensure that he will not be short of job offers when his tenure with the Russians ends.

So what of Ancelotti? The papers have said that the AC Milan man is signed up, and he himself has announced that the job is his to turn down, but what I can’t understand is why he was even in the running, never mind top of the list.

We are led to believe Abramovich wants free flowing attacking football – the Italians generally regard Ancelotti as defensive and if the Italians, the masters of catenaccio, think that he is too defensive who are we to argue?

Perhaps our owner is willing to sacrifice “attractive” football to land the European Cup, which seems to have become somewhat of an obsession of his. But can Ancelotti deliver?

It’s easy to be wise after the event, but most of us (myself included) were unsure of Hiddink when he first joined us – his background was very similar in many ways to Scolari’s yet look what an impression he has made.

Of course to make such an impression you need to be able to get your views, opinions, ideas and ethos across and Guus was more than able to do that as his language skills were excellent.

Ancelotti may be a great manager, and I’m sure that the club will ensure that the very best translators are on hand to assist him, and he may have been learning English for the last couple of months but we (and others) have found from bitter experience this is often not enough.

As I watched United lift that Premier League trophy I couldn’t help the “what-ifs” entering my mind.

What if Hiddink had been here from the start of the season? What if he had come to us just a month earlier? As much as United deserve to be Premier League champions, we didn’t give them the kind of competition we are capable of.

Had Hiddink been at the helm, I don’t think we would have capitulated so easily to our nearest rivals and that could have had a big say in the final placings. But credit where credit is due, United have fought on all fronts and have had a deservedly successful season which may still have an even better finale.

At half-time during the Blackburn game, the sentimental feel of the day continued when we were able to pay our tributes to four Chelsea captains, the four most successful in our history, Bentley, Harris, Wise and Terry – success stretching over six decades (even though we have no history obviously). Each very different in his own way, but each leading Chelsea to varying degrees of success.

The last home game of the season saw Hiddink getting a Ranieiri-esque guard of honour from the players and a tremendous reception from the crowd. A bond has been formed that makes me think that the Cup Final will not be Guus’s last hurrah as far as Chelsea is concerned.

Whoever comes in now will have a hard act to follow and the board need to make their decisions very carefully as their record in this department is not the best.

Hiddink has won the trust and respect of the players, has the full backing of the supporters and has even charmed the press; if he could only find a way of ensuring that Platini and UEFA treat us in a fair and impartial manner then canonisation is just around the corner.

After the game one of our resident stattos was calculating over the beer that Hiddink had achieved a points-per-match ratio of 2.59 since arriving at Chelsea, and that if he had been in place last August we would now be champions with a total of 98 points.

Figures always lie. But what was certainly true was the poignant flag being held aloft at Stamford Bridge which simply said: “Thanks Guus. A Special One Two.”

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