Guus Hiddink may be taking Chelsea orders from Antonio Conte
Could Antonio Conte already be running things at Chelsea through Guus Hiddink?
Chelsea’s interim manager Guus Hiddink claims to have made the decision to start Asmir Begovic over Thibaut Courtois in Chelsea’s 1-0 loss at Swansea today. I think that bold move sounds a lot more like something future boss Antonio Conte would do.
Hiddink has endeared himself to the Chelsea dressing room by being a player’s manager. His easygoing personality has allowed him to reach players that had completely tuned Jose Mourinho out. He has succeeded at Stamford Bridge by not rocking the boat or playing the mind games that defined The Special One’s time in charge.
That’s why I’m not buying Hiddink’s claims that he started Begovic over a fully fit Courtois against Swansea to reward Begovic for his professionalism. Putting Courtois on the bench for the match was a clear warning shot fired at the Belgian international.
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Courtois has recently gone on record with his uncertainty over his future at Stamford Bridge and those comments certainly irritated some decision makers at Chelsea. Courtois’ lack of professionalism was at least as much of a reason for his benching than anything positive that Begovic has done.
The timing of the benching is also significant cause for suspicion. Hiddink is asking us to believe that it’s just coincidence that his decision to bench Courtois came in the Premier League match immediately following Conte’s announcement as the future Chelsea boss. I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night.
The much more likely scenario is that Antonio Conte made this call. He’s known to be a borderline ruthless manager and he isn’t the type of man to take Courtois’ uncertainty over his future at Chelsea lying down. He’ll want to make an immediate statement upon his arrival at the club and he can’t afford for a big star to be seen as anything other than completely committed to his project.
I believe that Conte is definitely behind the decision to move Begovic into the starting 11. He may not have communicated that wish directly to Hiddink, but I have no doubt he let someone at the club know that Courtois needed to be put in his place.
There’s also the possibility that Chelsea’s ownership has decided to grant Courtois his move away this summer. That seems unlikely given his prodigious talent level, but I at least want to acknowledge it as a remote possibility.
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The truth is this sort of decision just screams Antonio Conte at anyone willing to look at it objectively. Guus Hiddink is too nice a manager to rock the boat like this. If Thibaut Courtois has an issue with being benched, he should talk directly to Antonio Conte.