Golden oldies
B. SANJEEVAN feels that Chelsea’s Surinamese striker Hasselbaink has proven that the old guards can still deliver the goods.
CLAUDIO Ranieri’s hopes of landing his club’s first league title in 49 years was almost in shreds after a recent string of poor performances that included a humiliating 4-2 loss at Charlton Athletic.
After keeping abreast of Manchester United and the Gunners for most of the season and almost guaranteeing fans of the Premiership an exciting three-club race for the crown, the Italian’s tinkering with the first-team line-up compounded by Damien Duff’s long injury lay-off meant adverse results on the pitch that have seriously dented Chelsea’s championship aspirations.
His strikers, Adrian Mutu and Hernan Crespo were firing blanks as even the much-maligned Gerard Houllier managed to engineer a Liverpool victory at Stamford Bridge, thus avenging the Reds’ 2-1 defeat in the season opener back in August last year.
The Italian tried to put on a brave face at the press conference immediately following the Liverpool match claiming his boys had played their hearts out but did not get the rub of the green.
It was a statement one would have expected Ranieri’s Merseyside counterpart to have made, not for the first time one might add, but such is the unpredictability of the beautiful game, and to add to the pressure, the bookmakers were cutting the odds on the 53-year-old Roman getting the sack.
For Chelsea’s next match, a potential banana-skin, a trip to Walkers Stadium to face the Foxes who were in relegation trouble, Ranieri decided to chop and change once again.
Instead of relying on the club’s summer purchases, the former Napoli and Valencia manager restored some of the longest-serving players to the starting XI.
In came the defensive trio of Marcel Desailly, Celestine Babayaro and Mario Melchiot, Danish winger, Jesper Gronkjaer and the highly successful forward pairing of Gudjohnsen and one-time Elland Road favourite, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
Club owner, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich may have waved his cheque book and lured two of Serie A’s leading strikers in Crespo and Mutu but this duo have not set the Premiership alight.
Thus, Ranieri was forced to rely on a relative old-timer in the squad for goals, the 32-year-old Surinamese who sometimes features for the Netherlands, Hasselbaink.
Unlike the high profile Argentine and Romania’s answer to David Beckham, the Dutch international did not let his manager down as he effectively assured his team returned to London with maximum points with two goals in the first period.
He had also proven a point to the gaffer – “leave me out of the line-up at your peril.” An interesting point to note for Chelsea this season is that the Blues have yet to lose a match in which Hasselbaink finds the net.
The brace in Chelsea’s 4-0 mauling of Leicester City last Saturday lifted his tally for the season to 12 in all competitions, eight of which have come in Premiership matches.
The Paramaribo-born Hasselbaink came to Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2000 after topping the Primera Liga scoring charts with 34 goals for Atletico Madrid.
He scored on his Chelsea debut in the 2000 edition of the traditional season curtain raiser, the Charity Shield, in an impressive 2-0 win over Sir Alex Ferguson’s Mancunian army.
In his maiden season at the Bridge, Hasselbaink reproduced his Primera Liga form, scoring 27 goals and becoming the first striker since the legendary Kerry Dixon to overtake the 20-goal mark at the club.
This goal-scoring achievement earned him the Premiership’s Golden Boot trophy for 2000/01. He pushed the envelope further in his sophomore season with the Blues, netting an incredible 33 goals.
Hasselbaink is one of the most complete strikers in Europe as he combines brute strength with incredible swiftness and a shot as hard as a mule’s kick.
He is no slouch at headers either and is an aerial threat to opposing defences at corners and set-pieces.
Prior to the single season tenure at Madrid’s second club, Hasselbaink had spent two highly successful seasons at Leeds United. He scored 42 goals in 84 matches for the Yorkshire club before he deserted the Whites for the Spanish top flight and Atletico Madrid.
Wherever his career has taken, this roster of clubs include AZ Alkmaar of the Dutch Eredivisie and Boavista in Portugal, Hasselbaink has consistently banged in the goals.
With age catching up, Hasselbaink needs to win trophies fast and this season may represent his final chance of earning himself a championship winner’s medal.
It would be an unforgettable end to a glittering career and could also herald a new force in the Premiership, one that is blue, to match the two differing shades of red.
RSS
