Two jobs: Hiddink takes his Russia team through a
training session and he will be heading to west London next
week
Guus Hiddink will take the unusual step of consulting
Luiz Felipe Scolari to discover the extent of Chelsea’s
dressing room disunity before meeting the players in London
tomorrow.
There was yet more evidence of unrest yesterday when it emerged
that goalkeeping coach Christophe Lollichon faces a club fine for
airing his views on the dismissal of Scolari.
The sacked Brazilian boss will no doubt tell new manager Hiddink he
was undermined by Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Petr Cech who,
it has been alleged, delivered a damning verdict on Scolari when
they spoke to Roman Abramovich at the training ground last
week.
When he was asked if he would speak to Scolari, new manager
Hiddink said: ‘I haven’t done it yet but I will call him in the
next day or two.’
Yesterday the players who have been implicated by skipper John
Terry tried to distance themselves from Scolari’s sacking, with
Ballack and Cech insisting they were not responsible. But Cech’s
position was undermined by an interview Lollichon gave to a French
radio station, when he said the club ‘had to react’ to their
faltering position in the Barclays Premier League.
Sportsmail understands the Chelsea hierarchy are furious with
Lollichon for his outburst and will react accordingly.
Lollichon was at the centre of a dispute between Cech and Scolari
that developed after the Brazilian brought in Carlos Pracidelli as
his goalkeeping coach. Cech and Lollichon, who is seen as the
keeper’s mentor having first worked with him at Rennes, resented
the appointment.
The situation became so bad that Lollichon was banned from the
dressing room for last weekend’s goalless draw with Hull City.
Scolari dispute: Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech had a
dispute with former coach Scolari over the club's goalkeeping
coach
Hiddink has experience of dysfunctional dressing rooms,
never more so than when the morale of the Holland team
disintegrated because of an extraordinary race row that blew up
during Euro 96 and ended with Edgar Davids being sent
home.
But Hiddink will still need to be at his diplomatic best when he
discovers the rival factions that appear to be developing, not
least in the wake of Terry’s astonishing comments while he has been
on England duty in Seville. Terry said Scolari could only count on
the support of ‘two or three players’ before admitting Chelsea’s
stars had let the coach down.
Amazingly, Ballack dared to suggest that he was among the minority
who supported Scolari. ‘It’s a shame because he had not been with
us for a long time,’ Ballack told a German website yesterday.
‘Of course there was some criticism and we did not get the results
we all would have wanted, but that is not the manager’s fault but
the team’s. Something like this is always uncomfortable.’
The team's fault: Michael Ballack has claimed
he supported Scolari and that it was the team's fault they did not
get the results needed
Hiddink will be at Chelsea’s FA Cup tie at Watford on Saturday
as an observer — Ray Wilkins will take temporary charge — before
being officially unveiled next week ahead of what promises to be a
fascinating Premier League clash at high-flying Aston Villa.
The appointment, as Chelsea confirmed yesterday, is for what
remains of the season but there is already evidence to suggest
Hiddink will continue as manager beyond the summer.
His move to Stamford Bridge has not been welcomed by Russian
football officials and even Hiddink can envisage his temporary role
becoming permanent.
‘There are two scenarios,’ he said. ‘If it goes bad and they say,
"Go back east" or it goes well. But I’m not thinking that
far.’ The response of the Russians could result in them
telling him to stay in the west
Dream team: Hiddink with his friend and new boss
Roman Abramovich
Former Manchester United and Everton winger Andrei
Kanchelskis said: ‘To combine the two posts is wrong. It will
inevitably be bad for the Russian national team. A serious manager
should only concentrate on one team. Why didn’t Chelsea ask Fabio
Capello to split his time between their club and
England?’
Former Russian and USSR team manager Anatoli Byshovets also
complained that his country would suffer following the decision of
Chelsea owner Abramovich to recruit the Dutchman.
‘In combining the two jobs I see more negative than positive
aspects,’ said Byshovets. ‘I know it from my own experience. I
managed the Russian national team and Zenit St Petersburg at the
same time.
It was a complicated situation for me as I had to constantly
switch my attention from one team to another. It was impossible to
concentrate on achieving any specific goals. Any bad result of one
team directly affected in a bad way the state of affairs in the
other.’
He also complained of the power and influence Abramovich clearly
has. ‘No Russian coach who worked with the national team previously
was given so many privileges or enjoyed such special conditions as
Hiddink does now,’ he said.
‘The Russian Football Union is effectively allowing him to neglect
our national team by leaving it in the hands of his assistants.’
Hiddink insists he is simply acting out of loyalty to the man who
already pays his wages with Russia.
‘Abramovich does so much for Russian football that I wanted to do
something back,’ said the Dutchman. He said he would not, however,
be rushing to appoint a right-hand man at the club. He needs his
Russian assistants, Igor Korneev and Alexander Borodyuk, to run
things in his absence from his national role.