http://tinyurl.com/afaaj
GLORY OF THE BLUES
Apr 24 2005
HAIL THE CHAMPIONS: RUUD GULLIT EXCLUSIVE
By Martin Booth
RUUD GULLIT could not be happier that Chelsea are on the brink of their first
League title for 50 years.
And the Dutch legend is a strong supporter of the current boss, insisting it
infuriates him when critics say Jose Mourinho has spent his way to the top.
But Gullit has no doubt that the roots of the current success were planted by
his arrival and subsequent recruitment of several key stars in the mid-1990s.
He was brought to Chelsea in 1995 by Glenn Hoddle and stepped into the
manager's chair a year later when Hoddle was lured by England.
Gullit, who went on to boss Newcastle and is now manager of Feyenoord, says:
"A month ago, I went to London for the Chelsea centenary dinner.
"I spent a lot of time with Peter Osgood, I spoke with Roman Abramovich, I
talked to Jose Mourinho.
"I found it a big honour that they wanted me to come to London. Do the club
and the fans acknowledge I started the big change of Chelsea? I think very
much so.
"It was so wonderful to see how people talked to me about what I did for the
club. They all said it was the beginning of what they have got now. When I
became a coach, it was my ambition to bring players to Chelsea who they would
normally not be able to get. I succeeded in that area.
"I got Frank Leboeuf, who nobody knew yet. Gianluca Vialli was very famous,
Roberto Di Matteo I brought in. And of course Gianfranco Zola.
"Big names, nobody in London thought they would come to play at Stamford
Bridge. It was the start of Chelsea becoming a massive club in the world."
Before Gullit took charge Chelsea had been a mid-table side. In his first
season the Blues won the FA Cup, their first major trophy for a quarter of a
century, and finished sixth in the Premiership. They have not finished lower
since.
Gullit adds: "Bringing big players to Stamford Bridge was the key to change
the entire future for Chelsea.
"I think the club deliberately brought me to Stamford Bridge and made me
manager, because big players would then join us, knowing I was there.
"Every player I wanted came to Chelsea. If I asked the board for Vialli, I
got Vialli. If I asked for Zola, I got Zola. With Leboeuf at the back, Di
Matteo and Wise in the middle and Vialli as striker, I had the heart of my
team.
"It was not all about big names, because Leboeuf was a perfect example of a
player nobody knew. But he was the type of player I needed. He fitted into my
team.
"The main thing is that I got quality players. And by bringing top quality
in, I raised the level and thinking of Chelsea. Other players had to step up
their game too. If they could not, they had to go.
"Once I had got it going, the club really started to think big like me. There
was this buzz around Stamford Bridge, 'God, we can really make this club big
again! We can actually do it'. Chelsea was in my eyes a sleeping giant.
"It was bound to happen. I thought it was fantastic what we did."
Gullit left Stamford Bridge in controversial fashion in 1998, less than a
year after that FA Cup triumph, but he insists: "Now with Mourinho, I see the
follow-up of it all. He does it the same way.
"He brings players in and some of them are really big names, but others were
not classed as world-class stars. That is where he deserves a lot of credit.
"I can't stand it when people criticise him, slag him off or say he can only
do it because of all the money from Abramovich.
"Look at Didier Drogba. What was he before this season? A super striker? The
clubs were not exactly queing up for him, you know.
"As for Carvalho, before the European Championship there was not one club who
wanted to buy him. Who thought he was one of the best defenders in Europe?
"That is why it makes me mad when they say Chelsea's success is all about
money. Mourinho has brought together a fantastic squad. He has built a really
good team.
"I don't think he brought one big star who had already arrived at the highest
level. He brought players in who fitted into his philosophy.
"And because Chelsea had become a different club in years before this season,
they were willing to join the club."
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 80.229.140.103