Ruud Gullit: Portrait of a Genius. Harry Harris

and he has done everything. If you watch the way he trains and plays, he is a good example. You can’t help but learn from him.’

      Andy Myers agrees: ‘Off the field the club has definitely progressed and become more professional. We go for tests to see if we are allergic to any foods. I’m taking more care of my diet than I was a couple of years ago and I feel fitter thanks to the work Ade Mafe has put in. We’re becoming 24-hour-a-day professionals in the same way as the Italians.’

      Gullit says he found it difficult, at first, to make the transition from player to manager. ‘I’ve had to distance myself because I must make tough decisions. I used to enjoy being part of the locker room. But I knew I’d have to separate myself from that when I took the job.’ Gullit’s methods differ from Hoddle’s, but he refuses to make any comparison. ‘Before I took charge I had to sit quietly in the dressing room and suggest changes discreetly. I never knew whether they would be carried out. Now I am right there in the middle, giving talks, holding meetings and showing the players what they are doing right and wrong. It’s so nice to be able to express my feelings and ideas this way. And you can see from the players’ faces that they are enjoying what they are doing. They know there is more to the game than just kicking the ball into the box and hoping somebody might score. They have improved as players and they can still do better. My job is not to get a better team in order to chase Manchester United. It is just to get a better team.’

      Gullit has quickly sensed the change in attitude towards him since succeeding Hoddle. ‘The players treat me differently. They know that the decisions come from me and from Graham Rix. When we are on the training ground I’m just a player and Graham is in charge. But if someone needs to be dealt with in some way I’ll take him to one side and have a quiet word. I’m not going to shout or scream at anyone. Some people need a hug; others respond to different methods. The most important thing is that they take pleasure from what they are doing. Football is a game. It is meant to be fun.

      â€˜I like to watch what the players do and hear what they think after a game. They’ll only enjoy themselves if they’re winning and keeping possession. Most of the time we do that. The foundation is being laid. Success will definitely follow but it will take some time yet. For me, winning something is the dessert. The creation is the main course.’

      One of Chelsea’s legends has no doubts about the Gullit era that has brought sweeping changes to the Bridge. Peter Osgood, a regular still at the club in his pre-match hospitality duties, marvels at Gullit’s regime. ‘I think Ruud’s a very professional man. He is a great player and will hopefully become a great manager. He has installed certain disciplines that are necessary. We were always collar and tie, whereas lots of people now wear track suits, but I’m against that. You should go to a match feeling good and looking good. We always used to meet up and go out together, do things together and we had a great dressing room atmosphere. Ruud seems to have created the same team spirit. All the lads are terrific to talk to. We’ve just got to get the right balance and we will be an even more exciting side.’

      Gullit has quickly transformed Chelsea into one of the capital’s great entertainers. ‘We have bought the kind of players people like to watch,’ said Gullit. ‘Wherever we go, the grounds are full because fans know they are liable to see a spectacular show – even when it’s freezing cold.

      â€˜When you look at the new stands being built here and the waiting lists for executive boxes, you can see Chelsea is growing very fast. The speed with which we are able to grow depends, of course, on our progress on the pitch. But our policy in the transfer market has been positive. Everyone made a big song and dance about the sums we spent on Roberto Di Matteo, Frank Leboeuf and Gianfranco Zola. But we have recouped a fair amount of that, and the club’s business strategy has been excellent. Sure, we’ve had players who have had difficulties coping with the new regime, and others who could not accept it. But we are quite happy those players are now doing quite well at other clubs because it shows our overall quality.’

      Right from the outset Gullit knew the role he wanted to play as manager and the players he wanted. ‘I needed to know that I would be able to do the job the way I wanted it to be done. I wanted to be bothered only with football, nothing else. The club have accepted that, as they did when I named the three players I had to have: Leboeuf, Vialli and Di Matteo.

      â€˜I have a dream for Chelsea. Everyone dreams about something they want and I am just the same. I do not know if I can realise it, but all my attention is focused on Chelsea – all of it, nothing else, nobody else.’

      Bates is ecstatic about Gullit’s impact. The chairman was full of praise for Gullit for building a super team for £6 million and not £60 million. Bates said: ‘Ruud is the Tina Turner of football management – simply the best. Even in this day and age of huge transfer fees, Gullit has built this team for just £6 million. He’s been a clever buyer of players, and our chief executive Colin Hutchinson has been a clever seller of players. Hoddle built the platform and Ruud has taken us from being just another average Premier League side into the top rankings.’

      Bates was impressed that Gullit never took a single penny pay-rise to become the boss at the Bridge. Bates joked: ‘If he wanted a pay rise, it would have been cheaper to give him the club!’ Gullit took charge on a purely cash-for-trophies basis. Bates explained: ‘He wanted no extra cash for becoming manager. He said he would rather we spent the money on the team. We said we would give him bonuses for success. Winning the FA Cup for Chelsea and taking the club to Europe have already made that happen for Ruud. He has taken us a step further by elevating us into the international ranks. This club will now never be out of the spotlight, not just in this country but across the world. We’re now on the big stage. We’re also starting our own radio station and going on the Internet.’

      Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, debating the heated subject of the value and motives of overseas stars, justified his purchase of five in a summer-spending spree before the start of the 1996/97 season. ‘They are young with more to come, unlike some of the better-known stars who have come into our game here from Italy. You can’t beat the clock and I wonder how long some of them will play. I am building not just for today but tomorrow, although I must admit that I have a tinge of regret not taking Ruud Gullit when he became available. But I am afraid his agent put me off.’

CHAPTER ONE

       ‘I’m not a foreigner – I’m a world traveller’

      Ruud Gullit loves to talk. He is knowledgeable on a wide range of subjects, of which football is not top of the list. But he doesn’t just talk for the sake of it. He sees himself as a teacher and nothing seems to give him greater pleasure than an appreciative audience. He likes nothing better than to impart his wealth of, knowledge about the game to others, whether they are team-mates or journalists. In his company I have been riveted by his wide range of subjects – including adoption, surrogate mothers, and environmental issues. Ruud would rather switch on the television to watch a fascinating documentary than bore himself with an uninteresting football match.

      I followed Jurgen Klinsmann’s one and only glory season in English football and there are numerous similarities. There are also some stark contrasts. The smiling German symbolised English soccer, season 1994/95. Every magazine, newspaper, radio and television programme featured Jurgen’s endearing features. The World Cup star came to English football with a reputation of diving, but he did the right things, said the right things, smiled, and won the hearts and minds of the footballing nation. But after a while Klinsmann’s interviews seemed to merge into one. Then he ‘buggered off’, as Alan Sugar put it succinctly, after just one season, and the Spurs chairman raised suspicions about the German’s motives. Things came to a head during an interview for BBC’s Sportsnight