I write ahead of tomorrow’s Champs League game against Juve, cautiously optimistic about the Hiddink effect on a squad of, in the main, pretty overrated players. We saw the team come out with guns blazing against Villa, though it reverted to enervated Scolari type in the second half, and I firmly expect them to ghost past Claudio’s mob over two legs. (They’ll probably draw at the Bridge and win at the Stadio dell’Alpi…) All of which causes one to wonder what it “is” about successful managers: why Scolari looked like a clown from the word go, why Hiddink just does look someone you wouldn’t treat with anything other than respect. Whether Guus can really transform a group of “stars” either past their sell-by date (Ballack, Deco, Drogba) or just lightweight (Kalouda, Anelka at home) remains to be seen. Boy, have we missed Essien, though I’d venture that Mikel has been a more than able understudy and is one of the few consistent performers in this underwhelming season. I still fail to understand why a club with such riches at its disposal hasn’t a) bought more wisely and b) brought through more young guns, but perhaps we’re more Manchester City than we think. Really big players don’t want to play for moneybags parvenus, they want to play for teams with real history. The truth that so few Chelsea fans will admit is that we’ve seen desperately little sexy football under either Mourinho, Grant OR Scolari. Anyway, here we go, here we go, here we go: Hiddink vs. Ranieri will an interesting first test.
3 Responses to Rock Hacks on Footie #1: Chelsea reborn??
But Chelsea have always been Citeh, for decades now: comedy underachievers whose occasional successes have always felt suspect.
Well said Barney. Speaking as a lapsed Bridge-ite who has taken no pleasure in the manner of their recent ascent (but one who nonetheless, out of habit, seeks out the Blues’ results first), I can only reinforce your disappointment at the paucity of style and panache since the Ruud boy left town. It all started with Mourinho’s inability/refusal to accomodate the minor genius that is Arjen Robben. Joe Cole’s injury hasn’t helped, admittedly, but even though success came far less easily in their heyday, watching the swashbuckling likes of Osgood, Hudson and Cooke was far more rewarding than enduring the cautious, pragmatic fare of recent years, for all the success it has brought (or should that be bought?). The problem, I suspect, is that intolerance of failure, however relative (witness the scurrilous treatment of Avram Grant), narrows the horizons.
We agree about too much for comfort, Steeno! It’s eerie sometimes. I’ve long said precisely the same thing about Jose and Robben (who has of course been on fire at the Bernabeu). Still, 4 out of 4 ain’t bad for Hiddink and – in the first halves at least – we’ve been playing with a bit more passion than we did under Scolari…