Chelsea Boss On… Getting Drunk With George Best

I got a text in the early hours which read “Mourinho has gone!”. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me at the time but in the morning it all became clear. Roman Abramovich had got rid of Mourinho and the chances of the title staying in Manchester increased.

Whilst Avram Grant was nothing to write home about and his sacking meant little to us, it was pleasing to hear that Abramovich had again made the shock decision of getting rid of his third manager in less than two years, binning Scolari’s contract and paying out a massive £7.5 million to do so.

Guus Hiddink has taken over at Chelsea for now, although seems fairly committed to his project with Russia, which will see him in charge until 2010. The new Chelsea manager has reflected on a time in his playing career when he was drawn to the USA, during the same time George Best was seeing out his career too. They were both at the San Jose Earthquakes during the late 1970′s and Hiddink has spoken about his time there with Best.

“We had a fantastic time,” said Hiddink. “In California everything was great. It was the land of plenty. The club gave me a big red Ford Mustang. We used to drive around Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. I loved hanging out there, meeting more weirdos and mad people. George was in a good period of his life. We were both living in the same apartment and he was doing a lot of work-outs in the gym. It was the most sober period of his life. I only saw him drunk once. I was with him in his bar “Besties” in Los Angeles. Because of his boozing that night he missed the match. Fifteen minutes before kick-off he rang to the changing room to tell the manager he could not make it.”