Guus Hiddink's Chelsea Legacy Will Be the Emergence of Youth-Team Stars
COBHAM, Surrey—Guus Hiddink gave his first press conference as Chelsea's new interim manager on Wednesday.
With the focus on how he can turn Chelsea's ailing season around, it was one dominated by questions on why and how the Premier League champions have found themselves in a relegation scrap.
What does Hiddink plan to change? Can he get key players back on form? Is a top-four finish even possible?
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Getting Chelsea out of this hole and climbing back up the table is very much top of Hiddink's mandate between now and May.
If ensuring this season isn't a total disaster is more for the short term, nurturing Chelsea's talented youngsters is equally vital for the club's progress.
Jose Mourinho should be applauded for the way in which he restored Chelsea as England's premier club. This season aside, Mourinho's return allowed fans to hark back to his first spell in charge when they enjoyed a brief dominance of the top flight.
The black mark against Mourinho's second coming, however, was a failure to sufficiently blood Chelsea's talented youth stars into his first team.
Chelsea have won three of the last five FA Youth Cups and added the UEFA Youth League to their growing list of honours last season.
Their academy is one of the finest in Europe, yet still we wait for a player to emerge as a Stamford Bridge regular. Plenty have flirted with the notion, but not since John Terry have Chelsea celebrated a homegrown star.
This season has been a particularly frustrating one for Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Despite the failure that has surrounded him at Chelsea, the 19-year-old hasn't had a fair shot at cracking it.
Mourinho used Loftus-Cheek for a total of 212 minutes across just five games this term. Given the circumstances, that isn't good enough.
Included in that run was a man-of-the-match display against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champions League in September, but Mourinho's reliance on established stars has seen Loftus-Cheek all but disappear off the grid.
It's been appearances on the bench as an unused substitute where we've seen him most. Loftus-Cheek's last outing came at the back end of November in the 89th minute to see out a draw against Tottenham Hotspur. Prior to that, we had to go back six weeks for his last outing against Aston Villa.
That has to change. Not just for Loftus-Cheek but the rest of Chelsea's talented young stars who have been training with the first team under Hiddink this week.
"Of course, some youth players are participating in the first-team training sessions, but I want to have first my analysis and my observations. Then we'll decide," Hiddink explained when asked about the chances of those youth-team hopefuls.
"It depends also on the development, what is going on in the next many games whether we do that, yes or no. First I must be convinced of their quality and I will then see what the situation is.
"It's a little bit too early to say now that tomorrow I will bring in a youngster of 17, 18 or 19 years old. But in general, if they show they are competitive, then I am not against giving them opportunities."
Hiddink admitted the landscape of the Premier League has changed significantly since he was last at Chelsea as interim manager in 2009.
He pointed to the rise of Leicester City, Watford and Crystal Palace to articulate just how competitive English football is now.
Chelsea have changed significantly, too. Hiddink isn't inheriting a team that picks itself. There aren't the same leaders he had when the Dutchman took the Blues to the Champions League semi-final before winning the FA Cup.
There aren't enough Frank Lampards or Didier Drogbas to get Chelsea through. That generation is in its dying embers, with Terry the only one who now remains.
Hiddink needs to look to the future this time, and by doing so, he must show more faith in that next generation of stars that are being produced a stone's throw from first-team headquarters at Chelsea's Cobham training ground.
It's just a single-lane pathway that separates the academy and first-team buildings. As we've seen in the Roman Abramovich era, though, the chasm is far greater.
When Hiddink handed over the club to Carlo Ancelotti at the end of the 2008/09 season, the Dutchman ensured the harmony at Stamford Bridge was restored.
He had gradually re-established the swagger of a side that would go on to claim a league and cup double 12 months later.
The former Netherlands boss can repeat that success with his treatment of Chelsea's youth. Whoever takes over the reins in the summer needs to do so with a foundation in place.
Hiddink will be determined to deliver silverware for a second time at Chelsea, but a legacy of youth will be his greatest triumph in west London.
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes
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