Waiting game: Hiddink is awaiting an offer from Chelsea
to return as boss
Guus Hiddink dropped the biggest hint yet
that he is ready to turn his back on Turkey and return to club
football as Chelsea
manager.
Hiddink repeatedly refused to commit his
long-term future to the Turkish FA and even confessed he was
feeling the urge to return to club football after five years on the
international circuit.
He also confirmed he had been in regular contact
with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich since ending a three-month
spell as temporary boss two years ago.
Speaking from the Turkish training camp in
Holland, ahead of Friday's Euro 2012 qualifier against Belgium,
Hiddink said: 'At the moment there's nothing concrete to talk
about, but if there was a concrete offer I would think about it.
We'll play this game and then see. The moment things are concrete,
I'll go to where I have to be.'
It did not go down well with the Turkish media.
One asked: 'We cannot get clear answers from you about your future,
there are English reporters here, so what is going on?'
But Hiddink insisted he was simply focused on
winning. 'We'll play this game and then we'll see,' he said. Defeat
in Brussels on Friday will leave Turkey unlikely to qualify for
Euro 2012, which could make them accept a compensation bid from
Chelsea and release Hiddink from a deal which expires next
year.
Hiddink signed a two-year contract worth
£3.5million-a-year net last year but came under pressure after
losing qualifiers against Germany and Azerbaijan. He spends most of
his time in Holland and will lose chief ally Mahmut Ozgener if the
Turkish FA president is not re-elected next month.
Hiddink said: 'I can imagine that if we lost to
Belgium they would say it is better to quit, as they did after we
lost to Germany and Azerbaijan.'
One theory cited against the 64-year-old's return
to Stamford Bridge is his reluctance to return to the rigours of
club football just before receiving his pension papers from the
Dutch government.
But Hiddink said: 'I have the energy, I'm not
feeling that I should sit back. As long as I feel fresh and as long
as the young people, the players, are not getting annoyed with me,
then I will continue. So far, I feel energetic enough to go
on.
Inspiration: Hiddink is in awe of Ferguson's
achievements
'Sir Alex Ferguson is a lesson for us. I
read that his wife told him to get lost, to go, not to sit in the
garden and do the gardening. Get back to work. My wife thinks I'm a
lousy gardener.
'When you're working at a club with a lot of joy,
you say it might be good to be a national team manager because
you'll be more flexible and you'll have fewer games but, when
you've been working a long time with a national team and still have
that energy then you like to work every day.'
Asked about his remaining ambitions, Hiddink
said: 'When I was working in Spain in the mid-1990s, I thought I'd
do one more year and then go into another sportsrelated business.
That was my plan, but now we're 15 years on.'
In his three months at Chelsea, from February to
May 2009, the club dropped only four points from 13 Barclays
Premier League games, finishing second. They won the FA Cup and
were beaten by Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final when
Andres Iniesta struck in the last minute.
Thanks to Abramovich' s influence, he was able to
combine the Chelsea job with managing Russia. 'That was another
situation,' he said.
'Roman Abramovich was a strong supporter of the
Russia team. We spoke to the president of the Russian FA and agreed
it all matched but that was an exceptional situation. You must only
do one job.'
Hiddink was hugely popular at Chelsea, and the
players gave him a limited edition Rolex watch worth £200,000. John
Terry is among many who stayed in touch. 'I still have the watch,'
said Hiddink.
'But I never wear a watch. Last year, I got one
from the Turkish players when we had a tour in the US. I'd just
started with the team and the first training session went on for
two hours and 10 minutes. The next day they gave me a watch to
remind me I should check the time.'
Silver lining: Hiddink (centre) celebrated FA Cup
success during his brief tenure at Stamford Bridge