I can`t beleive it

big phil bites the dust

www.africanbettingclan.com/forum/phorum-5.1.15/read.php?4,92363

My tip is Martin O'neil - although most reckon zola.

There is also a 'strong whisper' for Ruud Gullet!

avram grant and gus hiddink dream team

And don't forget Sven was the Russians first choice before the 'special on'!

Inter Milan are seven point clear in Serie A.

Why would Mourinho give that up to take over a bunch of misfiring has beens, and deal with the Chairman from hell ?

I reckon Rijkaard will be appointed till the end of the season, and then they will get a 'permanent' boss(three of those have been sacked in the past 17 months!)

Once, it seemed like the dream job. Money was no object and it was spent with glorious abandon.

You wanted a player, you got him. A glorious new training ground where the best footballers could be pampered and cared for and made ready for battle? No problem.

The scent of new riches drifted along the King’s Road and the stars of the game arrived in great flocks.

And when Roman Abramovich used the occasion of Chelsea’s centenary in 2005 to talk of building an empire that would dominate the game for 100 years, it seemed less a boast than a vision of football’s new reality.

There did not seem any way back for the chasing pack back when Jose Mourinho had the best job in football. Everyone wanted what Mourinho had: the hundreds of millions in transfer funds, the backing, the glamour, the profile, the players, the squad.

Every whim satisfied, every request met, two world-class players in every position, the luxury of using a talent like Hernan Crespo as an occasional substitute.

They were great days in their way, heady days when the old power structure of the Premier League changed.

And when the established powers of our game were coming to terms with being ambushed by an upstart.

How far away they seemed at Stamford Bridge on Saturday when Chelsea were outplayed by Hull City.

How far away they seemed when the crowd mocked a manager who was appointed only seven months ago.

How far away they seemed when a tiers that houses the corporate boxes had blocks of empty seats.

How far away they seemed in the attitude of some of the players, their cynicism, lethargy and indifference.

Luiz Felipe Scolari looked an old man, impotent and tired, as he watched another match slip away. If he thought managing Chelsea was still football’s dream job when he arrived in the summer, he soon discovered he was mistaken. Things have changed and whoever Chelsea make their fourth manager in 18 months will inherit a radically different environment from the one Mourinho strode into.

The shock of the new is long gone at Stamford Bridge. The intoxicating sense of adventure has been replaced by a kind of wonderment that so many things could have gone so wrong so quickly.

For a start, Abramovich seems to have grown bored of spending vast amounts of money on footballers. He lets Manchester City do that now and spends his cash on art instead.

Last year, he paid £17.1m for Lucien Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping. He could have nearly one and a half Craig Bellamys for that.

Since he bought the club, Abramovich has fired four managers in six years. It’s not the way to build success. What do you have to do to get his backing and a bit of support from chief executive Peter Kenyon when the going gets tough?

Claudio Ranieri reached the Champions League semi-finals, then got the boot.

Mourinho won the Premier League twice in three years and was rewarded with the sack at the first hint of a blip.

Avram Grant was the best of all: he took Chelsea to within one penalty of Champions League glory. And what happens? He takes a silver bullet as soon as he gets back to London.

Now a man as eminent as Scolari is sacked, being boss of Chelsea is starting to look like a toxic chalice.

Put it this way: you don’t take a job as Chelsea manager expecting loyalty and understanding from the board. Lose a game or two and it’s the Night of the Long Knives.

Much more of this and far from being football’s dream job, it will take over from England manager as The Impossible Job.

Whoever Chelsea next appoint knows he won’t get money for new players until the close season at least. Maybe longer. And when he looks at what he’s got to work with until then, he may not like what he sees.

In Deco and Michael Ballack, he will have two once great midfielders who look suspiciously like they’re washed up. Ballack goes through the motions. Deco hasn’t got it any more.

Florent Malouda, Salomon Kalou and John Obi Mikel aren’t good enough.

Nicolas Anelka has too many poor games, Alex is a liability at set pieces and until they get rid of Didier Drogba the spirit in the dressing room will not be right.

Scolari’s successor faces a grim fight to keep hold of a place in the top four. The fans may not accept that, though.

They have had a tantalising and brief glimpse of the glories on offer and dread it all being taken away.

Chelsea’s place in the hierarchy has slipped, too. They are no longer the golden boys, whichever way you look at it. Manchester United are better, Manchester City richer, Aston Villa hungrier, Arsenal younger and Liverpool stronger.

Apart from that, everything’s fine.

The name escapes me but what about the Dutchman who coached Russia.

Someone help. who is he?

Was it Gus Huddink or something like that?

Yes thanks the name, THANK.

hibernia Wrote:

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> avram grant and gus hiddink dream team


this guy?


Chelsea close in on Hiddink deal

Hiddink was manager of PSV Eindhoven and Australia in 2005
Russia boss Guus Hiddink has been approached to take over at Chelsea until the end of the season.

Chelsea hope to confirm the Dutchman's appointment by the weekend after sacking Luiz Felipe Scolari on Monday.

Hiddink, 62, who has close links with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, said: "If it was any other club my answer would be a straight 'no'.

"But Chelsea is different because I have good relations with the owner. I would like to help them if I could."

The Blues take on Championship strugglers Watford in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday, and the plan is for Hiddink to be in place in time for the game.

Chelsea have been given permission to negotiate with Hiddink by the Football Union of Russia (FUR), and the BBC has been told by the FUR there is nothing in his contract to prevent him from undertaking two jobs.

"In his contract there isn't any point on which he can't combine two posts, so he can do it. But right now the ball is in Chelsea's court because they must make him some offer. We think that he can do it but now it's his decision," an FUR spokesman told the BBC.

"We have officially approached the FUR for permission to speak to Guus Hiddink to become the club's temporary coach until the end of the season while continuing to be in charge of the Russian national team," read a statement on Chelsea's official website.

Hiddink had insisted he would not be relinquishing his duties with Russia and is fully committed to helping them qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

"This would only be for the next two or three months until the end of the season," he said.

"I will not leave my job with the Russian national team. It's out of the question. "When I took the Russia job it was a long-term project and I don't like to leave it unfinished."

The chairman of the board of Russia's National Academy of Football, which is funded by Abramovich, said there would be no conflict of responsibilities between the two roles.

"He can work with Chelsea until the end of the English season and then join up with the national team," said Sergei Kapkov.

Chelsea assistant manager Ray Wilkins is in temporary charge of the team until a new manager is appointed.

Hiddink has the extensive club and international experience Abramovich is searching for having coached PSV Eindhoven, Real Madrid as well as the Netherlands, South Korea and Australia.

And he insists juggling both club and international commitments would not be a problem having previously combined both duties in the past.

"I have already done that a couple of years ago when I was coaching Australia and PSV, so I'm familiar with the situation and what it takes," said Hiddink, who is in Turkey for a training camp with the Russia squad.

Former Rangers star Artur Numan, who played under Hiddink for the Netherlands, told BBC Radio 5 Live that man-management is one of his key strengths.

"He knows exactly what's going on in the dressing room. That's his big quality and why he has been so successful in all the different countries he has worked."

Billionaire Abramovich was instrumental in Hiddink's appointment as Russia manager in 2006. At the moment we know nothing about the link between Gianfranco Zola and the vacant position at Chelsea

Zola's lawyer Fulvio Marrucco

He was among a host of names linked with the vacant Stamford Bridge job after the surprising dismissal of World Cup-winning coach Scolari.

Former Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard, Italians Roberto Mancini, Gianfranco Zola, Roberto di Matteo and Carlo Ancelotti, along with ex-Chelsea boss Avram Grant have all been touted as possible successors.

Rijkaard, who left the Nou Camp in May last year, said he would be interested in the vacancy - but would only consider an approach for the start of next season.

"If the job offer is for starting right now, the chances will reduce quite dramatically because he is in a one-year sabbatical and planning to hold on to this," Rijkaard's agent Perry Overeem told BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday.

Ancelotti, the longest-serving manager in Serie A with AC Milan, had been linked with a move to west London last summer, but opted to stay at the San Siro.

However, the 49-year-old could be interested if the position is still available in the summer.

"If the position will be open in July then I think he might consider it," said AC Milan's organising director Umberto Gandini.

"He did already have a chance to consider it when he was approached last summer."


Zola and Clarke have made an impressive start at West Ham

Mancini, 44, who has been out of work since being sacked by Inter last summer, has been linked with a move to the London club in recent months.

However, his agent Giorgio de Giorgis said he has had no contact with Chelsea.

De Giorgis told the Italian media: "No-one has contacted us, hence, I exclude the possibility that Mancini will go to Chelsea."

West Ham have warned Chelsea that Zola and number two Steve Clarke, assistant to Jose Mourinho during his three-year reign at Stamford Bridge, are not available.

Italian Zola was voted Chelsea's best-ever player in a 2003 fans' poll, while Clarke served as a player and respected coach for 20 years.

But a West Ham board member told BBC Sport: "We have not received any contact from Chelsea and will not welcome any. They are under contract here for three years and we want them to stay."

Zola's lawyer, Fulvio Marrucco, released a statement insisting no approach had been made from Chelsea.

"At the moment we know nothing about the link between Gianfranco Zola and the vacant position at Chelsea," Marrucco said in a statement.

And MK Dons boss Di Matteo, another fans' favourite at Stamford Bridge, has also distanced himself from any speculation linking him with a return.

"It's flattering that the fans still remember you in good terms. I always had a good relationship with the fans, but that's it as far as I am concerned," he told the MK Dons website.

"I haven't even thought about it. There's a lot that I have to do here, that I want to do here and my ambition is to be successful."