Arsene Wenger once told me that there was only one way to
judge how good a manager is: give each one in a league the same sum of
money, tell him to assemble a team and then see who is top at the end
of the season.
Alas, because we cannot do that, we have to rely on subjective tools.
And even those are imperfect. A modicum of media savvy and a dash of spin
can make anyone look better or worse than they are. Let me prove it to
you.
Guus Hiddink is one of the best managers in the game
You need only to see his teams play to realise that he is one of the shrewdest
tactical minds in the game. And he is a phenomenal motivator as well,
a man who gives players the self-belief that enables them to overachieve.
But do not take my word for it. Look at his record. His first managerial
stint at a big club was with PSV Eindhoven in 1987. He took over in March,
they won the title in May. The next year they did the treble, winning
the Dutch Cup and European Cup as well as the league. And the next season
they did the double. What more do you want?
He went to Valencia - new league, new country - and took them into the
top four two years in a row. Later, he went to Real Madrid and they won
the World Club Cup. He returned to PSV in 2002 for four seasons, winning
three league titles. And in 2004-05 he took them to the Champions League
semi-finals, going out on the away goals rule to AC Milan, the eventual
champions.
And that is just as club level. Some of his best work has come with national
teams. He took Holland to the quarter-finals of Euro '96 and the semi-finals
of the 1998 World Cup, both times going out on penalties. In 2002 he took
South Korea to the semi-finals of the World Cup. And four years later
he helped Australia to qualify for the World Cup for the first time, getting
them into the knockout phase.
Plus there was Euro 2008. First he helped a mediocre Russia team to qualify
for the tournament ahead of England, then he took them to the semi-finals,
knocking out heavily favoured Holland along the way.
Hiddink clearly is a serial overachiever and one of the best in the business.
Or there is the counterview . . .
Guus Hiddink is a self-promoting opportunist
There is a reason why one Dutch commentator dubbed him Guus Geluk (after
the Disney character, Gladstone Gander, Donald Duck's far luckier cousin).
Like Forrest Gump, he is in the right place at the right time.
For a start, you need to take those PSV titles with a grain of salt. PSV
had won two on the bounce before he took over, so all he did was keep
things going. And besides, with all due respect, Dutch titles are a dime
a dozen.
That is why good Dutch managers go abroad and win things. And Hiddink
is not one of them. He spent four seasons at Valencia and Fenerbahce and
never finished higher than fourth. OK, he won the World Club Cup with
Real Madrid. Big deal. He was sacked halfway through the season, that
is how bad they were. And how about his stint at Real Betis? Three months
of futility with a team who finished eighteenth.
You want to talk about his exploits in Europe? OK, he did win the European
Cup 20 years ago, but that was when it was a lot easier to do so, when
there was only one club from each of the big leagues. And, by the way,
that season he did not win a single game after the second round, only
a series of boring draws. In fact, in his entire career he has won only
one European Cup or Champions League match from the quarter-final stage
onwards. Is this is your definition of genius?
But I am glad that you have brought up the national team because it is
good to debunk a few more myths. He had one of the most talented Holland
teams in history and won only one match out of four at Euro '96. And at
France '98 he did knock out Yugoslavia and Argentina on the way to the
semi-finals. He did it thanks to late, late goals, which may help to explain
his Guus Geluk moniker.
South Korea? OK, you need a barrelful of salt for that one. Or have you
forgotten the refereeing against Portugal, Spain and Italy? Three red
cards, two penalties and a dozen or so dubious officiating decisions .
. .
As for getting Australia to the World Cup, effectively he had to overcome
only one team to do it (and, even then, it took penalties). Once there,
what did the Socceroos do? They beat Japan - the only match they won in
the tournament.
Russia? Don't be deceived by their run to the Euro 2008 semi-finals. They
won only two of their five games in 90 minutes - against Greece and Sweden.
Oh, and before you say how these are great results because Russia and
South Korea are poor teams whom Hiddink turned into competitive sides,
consider instead that two of the past four Uefa Cup winners are Russian
and that South Korea have qualified for every World Cup since 1986 (which
is more than can be said for France, England and Holland).
The bottom line is that Hiddink's greatest strength is self-promotion.
With the complicity of a lazy and gullible media, he cultivates the image
of a footballing sage when in fact his results indicate the opposite.
The point of all this? We know and we don't know. We don't really see
managers, except through the distorted lens of our own prejudices and
bias, their own self-promotion (or lack thereof) and the cacophony of
spin. And spin, as I hopefully showed above, can make someone such as
Hiddink look like a visionary or an opportunist.
