Hiddink will be managing the Blues for the last time this season as we move on to the final game week of EPL 2015-16. After that he will hand over his post and his team to Antonio Conte, who will have a huge responsibility of restructuring the out of form Blues side.
Antonio Conte has been warned by Guus Hiddink that he will face a huge task trying to restructure the Chelsea side and take them to the Champions League next season.
The Italian boss Antonio Conte will move in after Euro 2016, and by that time Hiddink will be gone. But for now, Guus will spend the next week cleaning out things in his mind which are “chaotic” office at the club’s Cobham training ground ready for Conte.
But Hiddink says he’ll leave a message for Chelsea’s upcoming manager to enjoy the stress he is about to feel at the job because of the competiveness of the Premier League, where each and every team is more or less of same strength and Leicester City are a perfect example of it. The Foxes will visit Stamford Bridge today as champions to play the final match of their fairy-tale season.
Guus Hiddink said: “There can be surprises again next season. Many teams now, if they have good recruitment and good scouting, can financially sign good players.
“That means it is not automatically set that the established four or five teams who have been competing every year for the title will be secure. In fact it’s not so likely in my opinion.
“If I leave him a message, and it is easy to say, but: ‘enjoy it’. Being a big club there is the pressure, and the stress, but deal with that and enjoy it and enjoy the Premier League because this is one of the most beautiful leagues to work in that I have ever experienced.”
Hiddink’s will be celebrating his 70th birthday in November, but still he has left the doors open for other Premier League club, which shows his love for the Premier League and its challenges.
The 69 year old said: “I feel very fresh, I feel energetic, and I think I can do some projects I like to do, but you never know what will happen.
“In the summer I will take a rest and I will be interested in the development of Chelsea and other English clubs.
“I am not fading away. Sometimes I’m tired of this and tired of that, but in principle I love the game.
“Nature must also have its course, for young managers.
“Like in the tribe of lions the older lion is pushed away – when the young managers come up the old lions have to say ‘ok I stand back’.
“But when the old managers are energetic and have the feeling to deal with the youngsters, who are 40 or more years younger than they are, they can still be effective.
“For instance I don’t like tattoos. I don’t have them myself, but every time has its expression and if you ask a young guy what his tattoo means and he starts talking about the story what it means, about his mother or whatever, and then it is interesting.
“As a manager you must have this connection to the youngsters. If not you must disappear.”
Chelsea will give a guard of honour to Leicester and their manager Claudio Ranieri before today’s game and Hiddink admits the success of the underdog champions is a reminder of their own poor campaign.
He said: “We must face the facts, by Chelsea standards it has been a season with disappointments.
“Of course we managed to come back [from a relegation fight], and we are happy about that, but what was acheived is not enough for this club.”
He added: “We have to go on and be very competitive next season.”