They say you can't have too many good players in your team but the pre-Hiddink turmoil at Chelsea looks like proof to the contrary.
Too many egos in competition for too few places in the starting line-up has led to friction in the dressing room and, with Filipe Scolari not having the diplomatic skills to keep his multi-lingual squad onside, his coat was on a shaky nail for quite some time. So the job of pacifying everyone has now fallen to Guus Hiddink and, although a good friend of Roman Abramovich and known for being a hard task master, I fancy he will fare no better than his predecessors in exorcising the ghost of Jose Mourinho.
The Special One was always going to be a hard act to follow and I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if Chelsea continue to struggle until the man with all the money eats humble pie and welcomes the main man back. There is still a lot of football to be played between now and the end of the season and Chelsea are still very much in touch with the leaders. If they are to enjoy any real success - winning either the Premier League or the Champions League are the only real targets - Guus Hiddink has done well to hit the ground running and start to put pressure on Man Utd and Liverpool .
The last thing he needed was to have a head-to-head with another former Chelsea manager, Claudio Ranieri, but the Blues did well to see off Juventus. If things are to work out for Hiddink and the club, a lot of highly paid players will have to get the finger out right now.
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The Cardiff Conundrum
Arsenal didn't muck about too much in the replay but anybody who saw the 0-0 draw in the first game at Ninian Park a few weeks ago must have been impressed by Cardiff City .
They pummeled the Gunners for the first half of the game and, with three Rangers 'rejects' - Gavin Rae, Ross McCormack and Chris Burke - being very prominent in the action, I wondered if there was something in the Welsh water which made these guys produce the sort of performance we had been crying out for when they were at Ibrox. PLG's captain Gavin Rae seemed to want to be involved in everything, Ross McCormack shot for goal at every opportunity and Chris Burke ran at defenders and often went past them as if they weren't there.
And there was one instance in the first half, when Burkey knocked the ball across goal to Ross Mack, which brought back memories of one night in Porto when we enjoyed one of our best Champions League trips. When they didn't make it count when they were on top, I think we all knew Cardiff City would be made to pay and that is exactly what happened in the replay.
Then a thought struck me. Rae, McCormack and Burke are big players in the self-same team which regarded latest Septic hero, Willo Flood, to be so far out of the picture that they shoved him out on loan to Dundee United for 18 months. And it was the Bluebirds, not the Arabs, who trousered Ra Sellick's money just 24 hours after the wee walloper had missed the penalty which gave them a free passage to the CIS Cup Final.
I'm sure I wasn't the only Bear who was rooting for Dundee United at Hampden that night. Of course, I was pissed off with the outcome but, the more I think about it, the more I'm looking forward to Sunday because it will be so much sweeter to gub the Beggars than the Arabs.
ERWIN G.