Graphic: Tony Cascarino's ultimate football weekend

No wonder Roman Abramovich gets on so well with Guus Hiddink. The Chelsea owner has ploughed through four previous managers in less than five years but at last he has found one who is not afraid to say those three little words, so simple and yet so difficult: win with style.

“Yes, that’s possible,” Hiddink said yesterday ahead of Chelsea’s home game with Wigan Athletic today. It is just a shame, then, that he maintains that he will not be at the club beyond the summer. “It’s possible but it’s a demanding way of playing,” he added of the combination that appears to be Abramovich’s magic formula.

“It’s the most difficult part of football. If you wait until your opponent is making the error to build up your game, that’s a way of playing - but I’m in favour of provoking errors from opponents and then trying to attack as soon as possible.”

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Hiddink, combining his role as Russia manager with the Chelsea job until the end of the season, enjoys a special relationship with Abramovich, but he is not unduly deferential towards his all-powerful superior when they talk.

“I speak frankly in these matters without another agenda, I’m open and give my opinion,” Hiddink said. “Sometimes we talk about football, because what I’ve learnt, not just at Chelsea but also from Russia, is that he’s very interested in football itself. Not just the world around football. Sometimes he likes to have explanations. They’re not explanations as if I am having to report to him. It’s OK - I like it very much and if people are seriously interested then we can talk. He got very interested in football in recent years and I think he knows a lot.”

But does he know that to build a team that can win with style requires patience, the developing of a dynasty, not the restlessness suggested by his record of replacing managers so swiftly? Hiddink neatly turned the question around by arguing that impatience is a necessary characteristic for an ambitious club such as Chelsea. http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/sport/football_weekend_2802_2.pdf

“When I came here I could have said ‘I want to be patient, give me a few weeks, then you can ask me if the team is doing well’. When you are in this club with this potential you can be impatient. To me he didn’t require or demand anything to which I thought, ‘oh, this man is impatient’. But of course we are at the top level and we have to be impatient, but it must not turn into the trap of being over-nervous so you lose your strategy and philosophy.”

Hiddink hinted that a touch of insecurity, rather than a lack of fitness attributed to the supposed laxity of Scolari’s regime, was the reason why Chelsea retreated into their shells and tried to hang on grimly to 1-0 leads in the Dutchman’s two games so far, the wins over Aston Villa and Juventus.

“When things are not going well in parts of games – ‘ah, physically not fit!’ is the reaction of many people,” he said. “But when you have unemotionally seen the DVD of both games, at some points we open up too much and give the opponents too much space where they can play. Most of the time as players when we score we have the tendency to drop back because then we think it’s space. But the closer you get to your goal the more options you give to your opponents. Going back is a false security.”

The contrast with the salad days of the Jose Mourinho regime is marked: then, Chelsea seemed impregnable and imperious when they held a lead. On the subject of Manchester United’s present advantage in the title race, Hiddink was honest.

“If we are focusing on the title then we have to win every [game] that is true,” he said. “But Manchester United have to drop points as well and they are a very stable squad. It is difficult. But, yes, we have to win everything.”

For a man so intent on returning to the Russia job full-time in the summer, Hiddink was effusive about the appeal of life in London and his liking for the self-deprecation and irony in British culture.

“I love the self-irony that’s common in England, you can look very well in the mirror and say ‘how stupid I am!’, etc - that’s good to see. And on the other hand, working very seriously is the other part, that’s why I like the English way. Laughing at yourself but also giving 100 per cent and more – and after we have a beer,” he said.

So maybe that plan to leave could be revised? Hiddink was too wily to commit. “I could live for a long time in London. I could live for a long time in Amsterdam. I could also live for a long time in Moscow,” he said, adding with a grin: “We [my partner and I] like to integrate as soon as possible – so we can leave as soon as possible.”

What did he make of the warm reception afforded to Claudio Ranieri by the Stamford Bridge crowd when the former Chelsea manager took his Juventus side to West London last Wednesday? “That’s also very British, I liked that very much. I hope I can have the same in July or August,” Hiddink said. You mean, when you return for the start of the new season with Chelsea? Laughter. “Listen – when I come back and visit. And visit! Then I hope for the same reception which would mean that the team has performed until the end of May when I stop.”