Chelsea face Spurs a week before Russia’s World Cup qualifiers

Upon examining the fixture list, The Spoiler has noticed that Chelsea travel to Tottenham in the league a week before Russia’s World Cup qualifiers against Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein. The last thing Guus Hiddink would want is for Roman Pavlyuchenko to suffer an injury before the crucial double-header so wouldn’t the Dutchman therefore be tempted to ask John Terry not to go in too hard on his star striker?

The Russia coach is in talks about succeeding Scolari

Guus Hiddink wants to take charge of Chelsea until the summer as a favour to Roman Abramovich but has no intention of walking out on Russia.

The Dutchman did the same thing with PSV and Australia during the 2005-06 season and managed to win the Eredivisie. It is plausible that he could juggle both jobs because Russia’s only competitive games over the next few months are against Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein. He said:

“I must say that this is an exceptional situation. If it was any other club aside from Chelsea my answer would be a straight ‘no’.

“But Chelsea is different because I have good relations with the owner. So I would like to help them in this situation if I could. But this would only be for the next two or three months until the end of the season.

“I will not leave my job with the Russian national team. It’s out of the question. When I took the Russia job it was a long-term project and I don’t like to leave it unfinished.”

Is this a good move for Chelsea or should they make a permanent appointment? Who will be lined up to take over in the summer? Let us know what you think with a comment below.

UPDATE: The Russian FA have given Chelsea permission to speak to Hiddink about an interim role at the club.