Can Guus Hiddink juggle two coaching jobs at once?
That man is Guus Hiddink, the Dutch legend who must temporarily forget about London club Chelsea and turn his attentions to his other team, Russia, as it plays Lichtenstein and Azerbeijan in World Cup qualifiers. Then he must switch hats again to face Newcastle in the Premier League, Liverpool in the Champions League and Arsenal, led by Russia’s playmaker Andrei Arshavin, in the FA Cup. It’s enough to make your head spin. Some Russians aren’t too happy about Hiddink’s double duty. Former national team manager Anatoli Byshovets complained that Hiddink would never be able to keep the proper balance between club and country. Byshovets should know: he coached Russia and Zenit St. Petersburg at the same time. Russia lost three straight games, and he was fired. This kind of double-teaming is pretty rare. Rarer still: successfully coaching a huge club and a completely unrelated country. (St. Petersburg and Russia had a lot of crossover, and Russia wasn’t very good.) Back in 1974, Rinus Michel
