Leicester City do not deserve Chelsea’s on-call caretaker Guus Hiddink
By George Perry
Only two managers have coached Chelsea for two separate spells: Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink. Leicester City do not deserve Hiddink.
Chelsea hold a special place in the periphery of Leicester City’s historic 2015/16 title. The Blues were the defending champions as Leicester marauded the league. Eden Hazard’s goal against Tottenham clinched the title for the Foxes. The clubs played each other on the final day of the season. Claudio Ranieri coached at Chelsea from 2000-04, during which time he earned his “Tinkerman” nickname.
Leicester City now want to create one more link between the clubs’ fortunes of the last two seasons. The Foxes reportedly want two-time Chelsea interim manager Guus Hiddink to do for them what he twice did for the Blues.
After what Leicester did to Ranieri – the nicest guy in English (global?) football – they do not deserve Hiddink.
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Guus Hiddink probably thought he would never be called on to take over a club in a worse position than the one he found upon arriving at Chelsea in 2015. As Leicester emerged as a serious contender for the title, Hiddink found a defending champion in disarray. Relegation was closer than a Champions League berth. The locker room had any number of rifts between players and staff. A popular manager had been sacked mid-season.
Leicester’s present state is worse on every count. The Foxes are far more likely to be relegated. The press is reporting that players circumvented management to voice their displeasure directly to the owners. Players are now rebutting those claims. And Claudio Ranieri is far more popular than Jose Mourinho was in his second spell.
Hiddink is the ultimate calming influence on a locker room. His level demeanor managed to keep Diego Costa and Eden Hazard in line for long enough for Antonio Conte to take over. He gave Chelsea an under-the-circumstances respectable 10th place finish on the back of a long unbeaten streak.
In his first go-around at Stamford Bridge, Hiddink took Chelsea through to the Champions League quarterfinals. He won the FA Cup and finished the season in third place. Although he was still the Russian national team manager, the players even wanted him to stay.
Guus Hiddink is every Leicester City needs right now. They are still alive in the Champions League. They need someone who can calm and then reinvigorate Jamie Vardy. If they are serious about keeping him through the 2017/18 season while they figure out their long-term plan, they need someone who can be popular with the players.
In short, Hiddink is everything they do not deserve. Everything about Claudio Ranieri’s sacking is some combination of baffling and insulting. Neither the timing, the rationale nor the manner of the decision speaks well of the club. By comparison to the Srivaddhanaprabha family, Roman Abramovich looks downright warm and fuzzy in his employment decisions.
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No manager will ever feel safe at Leicester City after this. Paranoia, mistrust and fear will haunt King Power stadium. Guus Hiddink, like Claudio Ranieri, is a true gentleman and a worthy manager. He can do better than Leicester, and they deserve far less than him.