Hiddink leaves his mark
Chelsea’s celebrations after beating Everton 2-1 in the FA Cup Final on Saturday were understandable – after all they were saying farewell to a popular coach by winning their first silverware in two years.
But the sight of billionaire owner Roman Abramovich partying animatedly with his players and coaching staff in the Wembley dressing room told the full story of Hiddink’s impact during three breathless months in England.
The Dutchman will fly to Moscow today to return to his ‘other’ role as coach of the Russian national team but his memory will live long in west London, not least in the revitalisation of Abramovich’s passion for the club and his decision to dig deep again this summer.
It was only a couple of years ago that the Russian refused Jose Mourinho permission to buy defender Tal Ben Haim to ease an injury crisis and told the club he wanted them to be self-funding.
The days of the big-money transfer were over, Chelsea revealed, and when Abramovich increasingly chose not to attend matches and shunned visits to the training ground it became obvious his interest was waning. But the arrival of Hiddink, a close friend, has changed all that and now there is serious talk that Chelsea are ready to re-enter the transfer market with a bang – tabling bids for Bayern Munich winger Ribery and Valencia striker Villa which combined could top 100m.
“I think Roman has got big plans for the club,” captain John Terry claimed after Saturday’s final which saw goals from Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard win the Cup for Chelsea after Louis Saha had scored after just 25 seconds, the fastest FA Cup Final goal in history.
“Over the last six months he’s been busy. Over the previous six months just after the Champions League he was away quite a lot. But of late he’s been here and he wants to know what’s happening at the training ground again. I think we’ll see Chelsea back and competing for the top players that are out there, the likes of Ribery and David Villa.
“There’s been talk already. There are many players we are going to be linked with in the summer but when big players come up like those kind of players I think we need to show people and let people know that, yes, Chelsea are back – we’re back in the frame of things and we’ll be competing with the price tags needed to bring in the best players.
“There’s no doubt these are the kind of players we want to attract to Chelsea. And if we keep winning trophies like the FA Cup and push on in the next season for the Premiership again then we can attract them.
“At the same time Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole and Joe Cole are up for contract talks and we need to make sure we keep hold of the great people at the football club. Because people like Ash and Didier and Lamps have been fantastic.”
Terry’s words will be music to the ears of Chelsea fans who feared their club was on a downward spiral after using five managers in the space of just two years and failing to win a trophy since the FA Cup victory of 2007. Saturday’s win, thoroughly deserved despite Everton’s fast start, is now seen as the first step to, as Terry puts it, ‘a new Chelsea’ which will also of course require a new manager, almost certainly in the shape of Carlo Ancelotti.
Hiddink, handed an engraved watch as a farewell gift by his players, seems likely to play some kind of advisory role in that future too, as Terry pointed out. “I don’t think it’s goodbye, I think it’s see you later,” he said. “I’ve said before the relationship between Chelsea Football Club and Guus Hiddink doesn’t end here today. I think he’s going to have a big input and a sit-down with Roman – they are very close anyway. He’s obviously seen things that need to be changed at the club over the last six or seven months and he will certainly tell Roman exactly what he feels. And rightly so. Hopefully them bad things at the football club will change. As I say it’s definitely not goodbye to Guus, it’s the start of something.”
Man of the match: Frank Lampard: The consistency of the man is quite remarkable and having dominated midfield for most of the game he crowned his performance when he slipped on the edge of the area attempting a right-foot shot but had the presence of mind to get up to fire a left-foot effort whistling into the net. Real quality.
Referee: Howard Webb (6). He had a tough call to make over a Malouda shot that cannoned off the crossbar and appeared to cross the line and he missed a penalty when Lampard was brought down. But overall his performance was solid enough
Match rating: **** FA Cup Finals are not always thrillers but when you see the fastest goal in FA Cup Final history and a winner of real class from Frank Lampard’s boot you shouldn’t complain. In truth Chelsea always looked likely to win and needed stronger opposition to really fire the match into life.
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