In terms of trophy winning managers, only two have managed the club for more than one period of time. The first was José Mourinho, who arrived in 2004 and left in 2007, then returned 2013 and stayed until 2015. The other was Guus Hiddink. The Dutchman came in for a short period in 2009, then returned to replace Mourinho in 2015, staying until the end of the season. In spite of the success that Chelsea enjoyed during the time that Roman Abramovich was the owner, Hiddink’s time in the hot seat at Stamford Bridge was a little underwhelming; although it’s interesting to see he won exactly the same as his compatriot Ruud Gullit – the FA Cup.
Guus Hiddink’s Honours as Chelsea Manager
| Season | League Titles | Domestic Cups | European/International Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008/09 | – | FA Cup | – |
Hiddink the Midfielder
Guus Hiddink was born in the Dutch town of Varsseveld on the eight of November 1946. He joined his local team, SC Varsseveld, as a youth player, turning professional in 1967 when he signed for De Graafschap. The club gained promotion to the Eredivisie, which earned Hiddink a transfer to PSV Eindhoven. He remained there for two years but only played 30 league games, scoring once. He returned to De Graafschap in 1972, racking up 130 appearances in the league and scoring nine times. That was the most appearance that Hiddink managed for one club during his playing career, moving to NEC Nijmegen in 1977.
Things didn’t work out at NEC Nijmegen quite as Hiddink would’ve wanted, but he did enjoy the opportunity to gain some experience in a foreign country. In 1978 he went on loan to the Washington Diplomats, playing 13 times for the American club. In 1980 he returned to the States, this time as a player for the San José Earthquakes, making 15 appearances. In 1981 it was decided that his time at NEC Nijmegen was up, so Hiddink once again returned to De Graafschap to see out his career. There were another 25 appearances for the Dutchman in his final season in football, retiring as a player in 1982.
Becoming a Manager
In 1983, Hiddink was offered the assistant manager role at PSV Eindhoven, happily accepting. He honed his coaching skills during this period, learning everything that he could over a four-year period in the position. In 1987 he was offered the managerial role for himself, with PSV trailing Ajax by just three points with ten games of the season remaining. Hiddink’s management career got off to a brilliant start when the club was able to overhaul Ajax and win the Eredivisie. A year later he won the Treble, which included the club’s first ever European Cup, which put PSV alongside Ajax and Feyenoord in terms of being one of the Dutch greats.
In three seasons at the club, Hiddink won three consecutive Eredivisie and KNVB Cup Doubles, with one of them actually being a Treble thanks to the European Cup win. After that, he continued to gain experience, managing Turkish club Fenerbahçe for a year before having two stints at Valencia in Spain. In 1995 he was made the Dutch national team manager, taking them to the quarter-finals of the European Championship in 1996 and the semi-finals of the World Cup two years later. After resigning from the national team job, Hiddink was appointed as the manager of Spanish giants Real Madrid.
He lasted less than a year, moving to fellow Spanish side Real Betis. Things didn’t go much better there and Hiddink was sacked within a few months. At the start of 2001 he took over as the manager of the South Korea national side, leading the side to its first ever win in the World Cup. Not only that, but he actually got them to the semi-finals, which most South Koreans had only dreamed of. When he left the national side, Hiddink returned to the Netherlands and enjoyed a second spell as PSV manager. He won another three titles as well as the Dutch Cup and the Dutch Super Cup during his time back in Eindhoven, making him the most successful Dutch coach ever.
Managing Chelsea
Having established himself as one of the top-level managers on the international stage, Hiddink was appointed as the Australia national team coach in 2005, managing the Socceroos alongside continuing his job at PSV initially. He helped them make it to the World Cup finals for the first time in 32 years, making it to the second round. He then took up a job as the manager of the Russian national team in 2006, seeing them qualify for the European Championship in 2008. They made it all the way to the semi-finals, defeating Hiddink’s native country along the way. At Chelsea, a former head scout of Hiddink’s recommended him to Roman Abramovich.
The problem was that Hiddink had already agreed to extend his time as the Russian head coach, so Chelsea had to turn to Luiz Felipe Scolari as a replacement for Avram Grant at the end of the 2007-2008 campaign. When Scolari struggled, Abramovich wasn’t slow in sacking him, asking Ray Wilkins to take charge for a short period whilst Hiddink was persuaded take over and manage Chelsea until the end of the season alongside his role as Russia’s manager. His first game saw the Blues defeat Aston Villa, then his first game at Stamford Bridge resulted in a 1-0 win over Juventus in the Champions League.
Chelsea then enjoyed a small form of revenge over Liverpool, who had knocked them out of the Champions League in both 2005 and 2007, by defeating them in the quarter-finals thanks to a 3-1 win at Anfield. The Blues were eventually knocked out at the semi-final stage thanks to a goal difference loss to Barcelona. During his first spell as Chelsea manager, Hiddink only lost one game, which was a 1-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur. That included a cup run that saw the Blues make it to the final of the FA Cup, where a 1-0 defeat of Everton ensured that Hiddink’s time at the club had been crowned with some silverware.
A Second Spell at Chelsea & Life After London
Despite fans and some players begging Hiddink to take on the manager’s role permanently, he left the club in 2009. A year later and he became the manager of the Turkey team, then in 2012 took over at the Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala. In 2014 he became the Dutch national team once more, but he only lasted until the June of 2015. Meanwhile, José Mourinho had returned to Stamford Bridge but things had ended in a typically fiery way and he left the club in the December. Hiddink was asked to return and once again take on the role of interim manager, which he did, saying that he was ‘excited to return to Stamford Bridge’.
Hiddink’s second period at the club wasn’t as successful as his first, but when the Blues drew 1-1 with Stoke City it set a record for the longest unbeaten period as a new manager in the Premier League, having gone 12 games unbeaten. When the season ended, Chelsea finished in 10th place, having been 16th when he arrived. He went on to manage the China Under-21 side, but was fired within a year. He was the manager of the Curaçao national team in the August of 2020, stepping down in 2021 and then retired, briefly coming out of retirement to be the assistant for the Socceroos for two matches.