Watford vs Chelsea | 14-Feb-09 17:30 UK

I never thought I’d be excited about the Watford match. I’m not only excited, I’m expecting a lot. You may say it’s a little too early to expect Hiddink to show us a difference. But why not?

By sacking Scolari, Roman has showed his intent that he cannot put up with this nonsense anymore. He wants improvement, in results and in performance. His standards and expectations are very high. It’s a strong message to all the players and coaching staff.

Have you ever heard Hiddink speak English? You’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was. The guy speaks very good English. Not the "yesterday bad...today good...tomorrow I don’t know" type of English.

For me, that's a huge relief. He speaks good English. He speaks sense. He looks like a tough no-nonsense guy. He’s known to be a master tactician. He has mostly worked with teams that are not gifted with the quality that Chelsea has. That’s quite a contrast when you compare him to Scolari, who has always worked with teams of high quality. That’s one more reason why I think Hiddink would certainly perform better.

I expect Roman to have more patience with Hiddink. Also, I expect Hiddink to perform lot better than Scolari did. That way, this should be a fruitful partnership. There are a lot of rumours that Hiddink is here for the long term. I doubt that.

With very few international commitments he can probably manage both Chelsea and Russia in the next three months. After that, as he himself admitted, it would be quite a stretch. Anyway, let’s talk about the three months for now.

All said, Hiddink is in a win-win situation. If he turns around Chelsea’s season, he will be hailed as a magician. That’ll be another feather in his cap. If he is unable to resurrect our season, he can’t take any blame. Much of the damage was done before he took over. Okay, let me not call it a win-win situation, he’s got a "nothing-to-lose" situation.

All focus would be on Guus. What team he chooses, who’s on the bench, which formation he plays, what does he wear for the match and all such stuff.

Against Watford tomorrow, if he plays a 4-4-2 with Drogba and Anelka as strikers, and if he plays any youngsters, I’d sign up in his fan club plus I’ll sing a song for him. For him, the starting point is clear.

List down all the mistakes Scolari did and try to avoid all or most of them. I know we are not in a stage where we can experiment but not expeimenting has left us where we are now. That’s a good enough reason to experiment.

On Valentine’s day, let Hiddink’s romance with Chelsea and Chelsea fans begin!