The 35-year-old defender could be in his final days as a Chelsea player, as incoming head coach Antonio Conte is still to determine whether or not the skipper will receive a one-year contract extension, with his current deal to expire this summer.
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Spurs dropped points against West Brom last time out, despite taking the lead, and Hiddink feels inexperience could cause a few jitters in Mauricio Pochettino’s team. Unlike John Terry, who, and these are Hiddink’s words, always has that “deep down fire” in his body, in his soul.
“It’s a personal opinion but when you have the academy and players like him, like Lampard, like Drogba, like Ballack in the area, they can have their influence within the club as well – on development of young players or in other parts of the club”, Hiddink said.
“The desire is there, you see it in training sessions as well. Giggs was also there, they have this huge desire”.
Chelsea will play Tottenham Hotspur next on Monday. But we didn’t. I think now we know what we have to do next season.
‘He’s always motivated. I never had one training session with him where I’ve said ‘Hey, John, you were not there. Asked how his captain had coped with being out of the team, Hiddink replied: “He was nearly unapproachable when he got his physical setback”. He was always there in both spells. I have to put the brake on a bit, which means the desire is still high’.
That is not something which can be imposed upon a player, Hiddink says.
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“Against Man City we played a very good 20 or 30 minutes, then they caught us on the counter, but there was nothing to be critical about regarding the attitude of the players, and there won’t be in the Sunderland, Liverpool and Leicester games”. This is hard for us because now we do not have the motivation to play, to train, because we have nothing to win. “They will be able to give their experience to other players or sections at the club”.
