Guus Hiddink suggests he is waiting for ‘concrete’ offer from Chelsea

Guus Hiddink, Turkey manager (Getty Images)

Related Links

Teams

Players

Guus Hiddink has given his biggest hint yet that he is ready to return to Chelsea and club management, though says he has not been made any offer.

Hiddink was a big hit with everyone at Chelsea during a three-month, FA Cup-winning stint at the club in 2009, and has suggested he could be willing to discuss his future after Friday’s game for Turkey against Azerbaijan.

“There’s nothing concrete,” Hiddink said in an article in The Mail.

“You cannot go into all kind of speculation or rumours because there’s nothing concrete. The moment things are concrete, I’ll go to where I have to be, direct.

“I have a good relationship with the president of the Turkish Football Federation. We talk every week about the future of ‘everything’. But, when things aren’t concrete, why should I go into speculation?

“First, get this game done next Friday, a difficult game, you know. Then we’ll see.”

It had previously been thought that Hiddink was not open to the idea of returning to club management as he moves towards the end of his career but has compared himself to Sir Alex Ferguson who has continued to put off any ideas of retirement.

“I tried to plan when I was working in Spain in the mid-nineties, and thought I’d do one more year and then go into another sports-related business. That was my plan, but now we’re 15 years on. The plan didn’t work.

“As long as I feel fresh, as long as young people, players, are not getting annoyed with me, and I’m always asking for signals regarding this — people getting sour or bitter or nasty as an attitude — then I will continue.

“So far, I feel energetic to go on. Sir Alex Ferguson is a lesson for us. I read that his wife told him to get lost, go, not to sit here in the garden and do the gardening.

“Get back to work. As long as you have this energy and you’re not repeating yourself, are keeping it fresh and the players and the people you’re dealing with are not turning away, then continue. You should walk away if they do start doing that, but I don’t feel it at this moment.”

“When you’re working at a club with a lot of joy, then all of a sudden you say it might be good to be a national team manager because there you’ll be more flexible and you’ll have fewer games,” he explained. “But, when you’ve been working a long time with a national team and still have that energy — like, with this team, I’d like to work every day because I’d have more impact on them and their execution of games — then you like to work every day. I like to work every day. So, we’ll wait.”

Never say never? | Guus not ruling out a Chelsea return

Hiddink took control of Chelsea on an interim basis in 2009 whilst still in charge of the Russian national team though he has ruled out any chance of combining club management with his current job.

“No, no,” he said.

“That was another situation because Roman Abramovich was also supporting Russian football very strongly, including the national team. He was a very strong supporter living with the Russia team.

“And when they decided to do what they did, asking me to jump in for that period, we talked. We spoke with the president of the federation in Russia, too, and we agreed because it all matched. But you must only do one job. That was an exceptional situation.”