In Guus We Trust

Usually I don't write articles not related to Barcelona F C in this blog, but this time I am tempted to do so. Guus Hiddink, probably could be the only coach whose name gets chanted by the fans every time him team plays. The recent Russia - Dutch match it was his name the Russian fans chanted in the beginning not any of the star players. That should talk as a testimony for the tremendous impact of this wonder coach in modern day football. If it was anyone else than Guus, who has taken Russia to the semis, then the world would have dismissed it as a pretty lucky coach. But then Guus has done it earlier, not once but many times. Guus Hiddink started his stint as a full time football manager in PSV Eindhoven. He has coached the bigger clubs like Real Madrid, Valencia etc , but it has to be said on a club managing level his best record belongs with PSV. His managerial record with national sides has over shone all his success with PSV. In 1998 world cup he took the Dutch team to Semis where they were knocked out by eventaul winners Brazil. He followed the same success with South Korea in 2002 world cup, when again he took the team to Semis. In his next stint as the coach of Australian National side, he took the team to the 2nd round where again they were controversially knocked out by eventual winners Italy. And now again he took an unfancied Russian side to semis of Euro 2008.

As a coach his success has been attributed to his calm nature. He has been regarded as a person who will never become nervous even in the difficult of situation. This nature could be well described by the way he handled the Australian Goal Keeper Mark Schwarzer before the crucial penalty shootout. This is being described about a person who used to tremble among his players in his first season at PSV. There was a story that he once was so nervous that he lit the wrong end of his cigarette. Guus Hiddink's playing system is very simple - he has a preference for the 4-4-2 formation where he organizes his attacks using wingers. Usually Coaches of lesser talented teams go for a much more physical approach, but not this man. He always believes in playing the beautiful game with all its beauty. So even in the toughest of situation you can expect him to play the game beautifully.

With such a simple and straight forward approach to the game, it always intrigues me how he is able to carve all these success. That has to be attributed to the intense loyalty he commands from his players. His players will testify anywhere that he is the toughest coach. But like the many peers in footballing arena, he does not display the toughness by abuse of opponent coaches and players via press meeting and term it as psychological warfare. He is stern as a rock and does not hesitate in taking the tough decisions. He showed no mercy in dealing with players like davids, arshavin, pavylchencko etc. This no-nonsense approach made him so popular among his players; Romario once delayed a kick off at Camp Nou so that he can run to the sidelines and kiss his old coach on both cheeks. So is the case with Park Ji-Sung, Arshavin etc, they all adore him.

For all his success his critics could very well highlight his inability to go past the semi final stage as his weakness. They might term him as unsuccessful for the lack off trophies. But he is not bad at those too; with a very competitive PSV team he has won the one European cup and many Dutch league. How can some one forget the performance of his PSV side in 2006 champions’ league semifinal against A C Milan? Yet, it could be argued that with his latest failure to take Russia to final, he can't be put in the company of the greatest. But all these team whether it was Korea or Australia or now Russia, never was expected to script such great things. He could inspire a bunch of average players to perform tremendously in the toughest of all tournaments will testify for his greatness. If you look the way Russia and Australia qualified for the tournaments that alone will say the fragility of these sides. But still he is able to drive his boys to achieve greatness in these tournaments.

Guus Hiddink for all these feats is loved and admired by fans around the Globe. He is worshipped in the countries where he worked. An Australian newspaper famously suggested imposing Guus tax (in order to pay his wages) so that they can hold on to this guy. South Koreans renamed the World Cup stadium in Gwangju in his name. Russians may surpass these when they have let go him after 2010. Guus Hiddink can be described as the only minimum guarantee coach in world football - "The Guarantee that He will not fail you.”

Guardiola Hints Arshavin Signing

Guardiola during the official presentation of Keita as a Barcelona player gave some hint of the impending signing of Arshavin. He described the Russian as a quality player and emphasized that "In the end we’ll get what we want". Txiki Begiristain also gave positive hints regarding this saying that there could be three more signings. The three players who are linked with the club are Arshavin, Hleb and Adebayor. Barcelona expect some difficulty in signing of the Russian, as they expect Zenit to ask a bigger price than the initial 15 million euros. The bunch of English clubs which are linked with the striker also will not help Barcelona. Sport.es anyway reports of Zenit sporting director Konstantin Sarsaniya confirming that Barcelona has made an offer for the 27 year old Arshavin.

The club could be in for some trouble with the fate of the fantastic trio of Ronnie, Eto and Deco. Out of which Deco is the only person, for whom there is a genuine interest existing from Chelsea. he can be expected to sign for Chelsea for the coming days. But Eto's case is a bit complicated. Barcelona looks like have an informal agreement with Inter for the player, but Eto has emphasized that the club will not be the one who take the final decision. If this is complicated, Ronaldinho case is some thing like a whirlpool. A C Milan who was genuinely interested in him is not ready to match the price Barcelona is asking. Manchester City is ready to match the price, but Ronaldinho may not be interested for that move. Goal.com reports a story in which it is stated that Guardiola might be interested in having Ronaldinho in the squad. How much Goal.com can be trusted, is a question? Whatever if Ronnie stays participation of Ronaldinho in Olympics is going to be a big problem for the club. As in the case of Messi, Guardiola has insisted that Ronaldinho skips the National duty. As far as I am concerned, Guardiola does not have the moral authority to ask such a thing. Messi should represent Argentina in Olympics, what will Guardiola do - fire him from the team, he must be kidding. The worst what Guardiola could do is relegate him to the bench, but then Messi can use the Fifa clause to get out of the contract. Come on Messi, Show some character, your country reckons you!

Arshavin Rumours Gets Stronger

As I wrote in my last post Arshavin - Today's Hot Dish there was no official bid for Arshavin from the Club. But everything might be in for a change. Sport.es has reported that Barcelona after reinforcing their defense and midfield has made the signing of Adebayor and Arshavin as the highest priority. It also reported that Josep Guardiola and Txiki Begiristain have agreed on this and are waiting for the Euro to complete before making the official bid for the Russian. The report suggests that Barcelona was aware of this Russian sensation before the Euro; especially Rijkaard was reported to be interested in him. The two reasons why they never made an official approach were due to the fact that his experience outside Russia was minimal and he used to play in a position occupied by Messi. The Euro campaign has dispelled both these problems, with Arshavin emerging as a player who can play in a variety of position. Arshavin is reported to have approached by seven major clubs in Europe but is expected to prefer Barcelona over others. More Over Barcelona board is interested to move in for Arshavin before the Vote of No Confidence against Laporta. This move would give Laporta the confidence to easily overcome the vote.

The reports of a Barcelona bid for Arshavin excite me, but the same cannot be said for Adebayor. I don't believe that he is the one striker we are looking at, may be then I am wrong. Whatever the club expected to endure a long negotiation with Arsenal in order to strike a deal for the tall striker. All the Barcelona fan blogs and forums are dominated by the call for not signing the striker, everybody fears a repeat of the Henry signing here. With Arshavin coming into the picture, Barcelona might be ready to drop the Hleb bid if Arsenal insist on the insame amount. But there are more troubles for Pep and the board to ponder. They still have not found a club for Eto. It is clear that he features no where in Pep's scheme of things. Barcelona is desperate to find a club for him and the latest one interested is Marseille, but I don't think Eto will jump in to that deal. Another big trouble for the club would be dealing with Ronaldinho. He is reportedly unhappy with the fact that Pep doesn't seem him as necessary. He has demanded answers when he return back from holidays.