Chelsea plan to give Hiddink a silver handshake

Chelsea’s players are planning to give stand-in coach Guus Hiddink a rousing send-off by winning the FA Cup at the end of the month. The Dutch manager has presided over an impressive recovery by Chelsea following the sacking of Luiz Felipe Scolari.

While Chelsea were eliminated in the semifinals of the Champions League, and are out of contention for the Premiership title, they will have one more opportunity to secure silverware when they take on Everton in the FA Cup final at the end of May.

“I really like him, he has brought a lot out of the players but it’s not going to happen,” Chelsea’s Ashley Cole said on Chelsea’s website. “All the players would love him to change his mind but it’s not down to us and we are going to miss him.”

“He gets you motivated very quickly, and he has been a big part of that. Our season is not over yet, we still have the FA Cup to go forward to, and we all want to win for him as well. It would be nice to send him off with the FA Cup.”

“Last season we could have had a treble and ended up with nothing. The FA Cup is a great trophy and one we want to win.”