Gus Hiddink is the successor of Felipe Scolari as Chelsea coach

After the sacking of former Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari during the 2008-09 English Premier League season, Chelsea confirmed that Hiddink would become Scolari's replacement until the end of the Premier League season on 11 February 2009, whilst continuing his duties with Russia. Hiddink was born in Varsseveld and started his career as a player in the youth side of amateur club SC Varssevel. He turned professional after signing on for Dutch club De Graafschap in 1967. He spent most of his playing career there and remains fan of the club. He joined PSV Eindhoven in 1970, but after failing to win a permanent position in the team, he rejoined De Graafschap after just one year and remained there until 1976. He also had stints in the North American Soccer League in the United States with Washington Diplomats from July to December 1976, and San Jose Earthquakes for all of 1977, before returning home to sign for NEC. In 1981, he rejoined De Graafschap and retired a year later. He generally played as a midfielder during his playing days.
Having honed his coaching skills with De Graafschap as an assistant manager, he took over the managerial role at PSV Eindhoven in 1987 (after also holding the assistant manager position there from 1983 to March 1987). It was at PSV where he led the team to its first ever European Cup triumph in 1988 affirming the Eindhoven club's ranking as one of the three giants of Dutch football, alongside rivals Ajax and Feyenoord. He also won three Eredivisie titles with the club in between 1987 and 1990.

He had a brief 3 month interim spell as caretaker of Nottingham Forest. He also had a coaching stint at Turkish club Fenerbahçe in 1990 but was dismissed after one year before joining Spanish giants Valencia. His outspoken nature was demonstrated when during a league game at Valencia's Estadio Mestalla, he ordered a racist banner to be removed from one of the stands. His open attacking brand of football appealed to the Valencia team as well as to the rest of the Spanish Primera League.

Chelsea are currently seven points behind Barclays Premier League pacesetters Manchester United, having played a game more.