Former Chelsea assistant manager Ray Wilkins claims that the arrival of Guus Hiddink has once again made Chelsea a calm place for the players. The club has been going through a turbulent season, which resulted in the sacking of manager Jose Mourinho after just a few months of winning the league title. The club have constantly been in the headlines since the start of the campaign when Mourinho launched a verbal attack on club doctor Eva Carneiro. Since then, they have been in the headlines for one reason or the other. Players have been dropped for several matches altogether.
Since the departure of Mourinho, though, performances have improved tremendously and the club marked with his improvement with a 3-0 win over arch rivals Crystal Palace a few days ago. A major reason for this sudden improvement is the improved atmosphere in the dressing room according to Wilkins, who has been in the dressing room during troubled times and during the good times as well. Hiddink may have not enjoyed much success in his recent roles as the Dutch national team boss, but he is someone who knows Chelsea very well after having been in this position back in 2009. The club will now look towards climbing up the league table after flirting with relegation so far.
“I never worked with Jose Mourinho, but having had the pleasure of working with Guus, if the atmosphere was intense under Jose it will be completely the opposite with Guus. He will demand they train well and demand they play to a very high standard but the training will be of a very jovial fashion. Straight away, he wants them to work hard but it will be fun all the way with Guus. Last time he was here he was adamant it was from the February through to the end of the season,” said Wilkins.
