Football: Gullit relights spark

Two player-managers have a job on their hands as they seek to make an indelible mark on the FA Cup today; Simon O'Hagan meets the striker whose career has been given a Ruud reawakening

You only had to see the foreign television crews lining up at Chelsea's training ground on Friday to realise how much has changed at the club following the arrival of Ruud Gullit as player-manager. This citizen of the world has the world beating a multi-lingual path to his door - everyone eager to talk to Gianfranco Zola or Roberto di Matteo or Gianluca Vialli or Franck Leboeuf or the boss himself, and breathe the sophisticated, international air that seems to accompany Gullit wherever he goes.

There we all were as the sun glinted off the wings of the aircraft taking off and landing at nearby Heathrow Airport, and Chelsea's own jet-set cast their dazzling rays around the upstairs room at the Imperial College sports club, which is the club's out-of-town base. Downstairs, getting treatment for a minor calf injury that should not prevent him taking part in today's FA Cup fourth-round tie against Liverpool, was a player we associate less readily with the Gullit era yet who has proved no less of a beneficiary of it and given back equally in return: that old Welsh warhorse Mark Hughes.

At 33, someone who has asked as much of his body as Hughes has over 14 seasons in the game shouldn't really be able to cut it at the highest level any more. As an old-fashioned target man, the recipient of countless kicks and bruises, the former Manchester United spearhead remains at the sharp end in every sense. Yet he reckons he is playing better than ever, and in large part that is due to a recognition shared by both he and Gullit that the time had come to approach the game differently.

"I think I've changed my game a little bit," Hughes said. "When I was younger I was dashing round the pitch, pursuing personal battles a lot of the time. In fact I think I probably got distracted by getting involved in physical confrontation. Down the years defenders have thought they could wind me up. But I know what they're trying to do now and I've been around too long to allow it to affect me. I'm concentrating much more on conserving energy. Ruud feels very strongly that it doesn't make sense for front players to be chasing back all the time if it means you haven't got enough strength to make it count when you get the ball in the box."

Not that the bull-like Hughes shows any sign of weakening physically. The opposite, in fact. He thinks his formidable build is one of the reasons why he has stayed so remarkably free of injury; his gym work, indeed, has intensified as Chelsea's overseas players have brought new standards of preparation to bear, to which Hughes has responded so positively that he's keeping Vialli out of the team.

"All the lads have been impressed by the work they do before a game," he said. "They're in tune with their bodies. They've got the right attitude and the desire to do well." Hughes, possessor of one of the strongest pairs of legs in the game, is now building up his upper-body strength.

If Hughes's eyes have been opened by others, so they have recognised what he offers to them. Zola is wary of being asked about his highly productive partnership with Hughes - he doesn't want to be seen to be comparing him with his compatriot Vialli - but acknowledges his importance to the side. "He holds the ball up very well," he said."That gives everyone the chance to reorganise."

As an unshakeable, back-to-goal link-man prepared to take any amount of punishment - and give it back too - Hughes still has few equals. "I've always felt I could benefit a side," he said. "I do a certain job, and I think the lads know that if they play it up to me they're more than likely to see it again."

It also means that goals become less of an issue - Hughes has a modest four to his name so far this season. In that respect he is under less pressure than he was at United, and he admits that "it did cross my mind" that when he left Old Trafford at the end of the 1994-95 season he would be going to a club where the fear of failure did not grip so tightly.

As it has turned out, thanks first to Glenn Hoddle and now Gullit, expectations at Chelsea have gone through the roof, and suddenly Hughes and his team- mates find themselves being required to make up for 27 trophy-less years, a situation not dissimilar to that at Manchester United when, with Hughes to the fore, they were striving for that elusive League title. "I think where we are now is similar to United around about 1990," Hughes said. "It takes time for players to settle in. But we're much better now than we were 12 months ago, that's for sure."

It took United another three years to become champions. In three years from now, Hughes will be 36. Not even he can go on that long, can he? He certainly isn't ruling it out. "I look after myself much better these days." As for life after football, Hughes has surprised himself by coming round to the idea of coaching, and exposure to Gullit is one of the reasons.

"I never thought I'd be interested in that side of it, but as you get older you find yourself discussing the game more with coaches and the other senior lads and sometimes you think, `Well, I might have something to offer.'" What impresses Hughes about Gullit, quite apart from his tactical know-how, is that "he's single-minded and not afraid to upset people". And when did Mark Hughes ever fear anybody?