Chelsea move for Hiddink

SOCCER:CHELSEA ARE to make a formal approach to the Turkish Football Federation this week to secure the services of Guus Hiddink as manager, a move that will spark a period of negotiations over the size of the compensation package required to land the Dutchman.

Hiddink oversaw last Friday’s 1-1 draw in Belgium in a Euro 2012 qualifier, a result that kept Turkey in contention for a play-off place, and has left for his holidays having entered the final 12 months of a €4.5 million-a-year deal. The federation admitted over the weekend that there is “uncertainty everywhere” over the 64-year-old’s future but the Dutchman, although understood to be keen to return to day-to-day management at Stamford Bridge, is reluctant to resign and break his contract.

An awkward period of discussions is expected, with Chelsea keen to pay less than the €4.5 million it may technically take to extricate their target from the final year of his deal. The Premier League side are already compensating Carlo Ancelotti, who was sacked two years into a three-season deal, and have been stung by termination payments to the tune of €40 million in the recent past following their dismissals of Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari, and their respective coaching teams.

Resolution is still anticipated long before Chelsea’s players are due to report back for pre-season training on July 4th. Reaction in Turkey to Hiddink’s apparent reluctance to commit to the final year of his deal has prompted outcry, with frustration prompting headlines such as “Good riddance Hiddink” and “Goodbye Guus” over the weekend.

It is understood Chelsea’s priority is to recruit Hiddink as manager rather than a director of football, though there could be some flexibility in future over the parameters of his role at Stamford Bridge. Only if they fail to reach agreement with the Turkish federation will the club turn their attentions to Mark Hughes, a popular former player at the club and available since his resignation at Fulham last week. Hughes’s agent, Kia Joorabchian, is well-connected at Chelsea and said yesterday that his client’s decision to quit Craven Cottage reflected ambitions to manage at “the top level”.

The 47-year-old would be interested in taking over at Stamford Bridge, though Chelsea’s priority remains to restore Hiddink to the club where he enjoyed a three-month spell as caretaker in 2009.

“There’s a vacancy there but I’m sure they have their own planning,” said Joorabchian. “We have not spoken to them. They have not spoken to us. It’s a club Mark has played for so he knows it well, but it would be disrespectful of us to say: ‘Yes, we’d like to go there’.”