'Arry reckons the Blues' interim appointment will remain in west London well beyond the end of the season...
Chelsea confirmed yesterday that Guus Hiddink will succeed the sacked Luiz Felipe Scolari as Chelsea manager, but only until the end of the current campaign.
However, Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp has opined that he would be very surprised if the well-travelled Dutchman wasn't still at Stamford Bridge come August.
"I think he is here to stay. I just cannot see Hiddink suddenly upping sticks and moving on when the season’s over," Redknapp said in The Sun.
"Hiddink and [Chelsea owner] Roman Abramovich are close and they have been particularly close since Jose Mourinho left the club.
"Hiddink is also a world-class manager, not the sort of bloke happy to come in and hold the fort for someone else to arrive in the summer and say ‘thanks very much, I’ll take over from all your good work now’."
The main concern some pundits and punters have with Hiddink's appointment is that he will remain the full-time coach the Russian national team.
Hence, there are questions as to whether the 62-year-old will be able to fully devote his time and mind to Chelsea, but Redknapp has dismissed that notion.
"These days it is feasible to be a club manager and an international coach if you think about the logistics involved," he said.
"At a club like Chelsea there is a team of internationals. So every time we get round to international week, most of the squad disappears to every corner of the world.
"Hiddink knows come international week he can join half the Premier League’s players at Heathrow and fly off to coach Russia."
Redknapp even went on to suggest that coaches juggling international and club roles could become commonplace in the upper echelon of European football.
"You can almost imagine a Premier League boss also managing England but there is one big difficulty with that scenario," he said.
"The manager in question would be pilloried if he only picked players from his club and if he didn’t he would get stick by angry footballers when he got back. It’s a no-win situation.
"But Hiddink should be able to combine the two. And I think that once he gets here, Guus will be here for a long time."
Chelsea confirmed yesterday that Guus Hiddink will succeed the sacked Luiz Felipe Scolari as Chelsea manager, but only until the end of the current campaign.
However, Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp has opined that he would be very surprised if the well-travelled Dutchman wasn't still at Stamford Bridge come August.
"I think he is here to stay. I just cannot see Hiddink suddenly upping sticks and moving on when the season’s over," Redknapp said in The Sun.
"Hiddink and [Chelsea owner] Roman Abramovich are close and they have been particularly close since Jose Mourinho left the club.
"Hiddink is also a world-class manager, not the sort of bloke happy to come in and hold the fort for someone else to arrive in the summer and say ‘thanks very much, I’ll take over from all your good work now’."
The main concern some pundits and punters have with Hiddink's appointment is that he will remain the full-time coach the Russian national team.
Hence, there are questions as to whether the 62-year-old will be able to fully devote his time and mind to Chelsea, but Redknapp has dismissed that notion.
"These days it is feasible to be a club manager and an international coach if you think about the logistics involved," he said.
"At a club like Chelsea there is a team of internationals. So every time we get round to international week, most of the squad disappears to every corner of the world.
"Hiddink knows come international week he can join half the Premier League’s players at Heathrow and fly off to coach Russia."
Redknapp even went on to suggest that coaches juggling international and club roles could become commonplace in the upper echelon of European football.
"You can almost imagine a Premier League boss also managing England but there is one big difficulty with that scenario," he said.
"The manager in question would be pilloried if he only picked players from his club and if he didn’t he would get stick by angry footballers when he got back. It’s a no-win situation.
"But Hiddink should be able to combine the two. And I think that once he gets here, Guus will be here for a long time."
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