Ruud Gullit has a lot on his mind. Everything from the Premier League overpaying for average players to the mess at Chelsea and a passionate defence of Arne Slot.
As we meet on the terrace of the five-star Thompson hotel in Madrid just hours after damaging defeats for two of his former sides – Chelsea and Newcastle United – the Dutchman starts to vent.
Gullit, now 63, played and managed at Stamford Bridge and so is plenty qualified to know what success looks like in west London. But he despairs at what he’s seeing.
The current crop under Liam Rosenior, a young and expensively assembled side who are now just three points clear of Fulham in 12th place, are, in Gullit’s view, miles off it.
‘Chelsea is still, for me, sort of an enigma,’ Gullit, working in Madrid as a Laureus ambassador, tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘What is your philosophy? What do you want? What do you really plan to do?
‘I understand that you want to win… but you have only young players there. You need some veterans to teach these young players in training what they have to do. The mistakes they make… all the time they make the same mistakes.
Ruud Gullit spent two years as Chelsea boss, bringing the likes of Gianluca Vialli and Gianfranco Zola to Stamford Bridge
He won the 1997 FA Cup at Wembley, beating Middlesbrough 2-0
The current Chelsea under Liam Rosenior are ‘too frantic’ and don’t have a clear plan, says Gullit
‘They are too frantic, too hasty with everything. You need to change your tempo and everything. Like a Luka Modric, a Toni Kroos, they teach you how to moderate the game. They don’t have that.
‘Instead they want to play at 100 per cent (speed). It’s almost impossible. So therefore, I ask myself, OK, what is the philosophy at the top? What do they actually want?’
‘There’s a lot of players there that earn too much money and are not that good,’ Gullit on Premier League wages
It’s not the only feature of the Premier League that has riled Gullit, who spent the final years of an illustrious career at Chelsea in a player-manager role before a season at St James’ Park.
Fellow Dutchman Arne Slot is under-fire at Liverpool despite being less than a year removed from winning only Liverpool’s second league title in the last 35 years.
The Reds have dropped off this year but still remain on course to qualify for the Champions League. And the fact Slot is even facing the prospect of being replaced is absurd to Gullit – who was sacked as Chelsea boss in 1998 while sitting second in the Premier League and in two cup quarter-finals.
‘Ridiculous!’ he says. ‘They (Liverpool) didn’t win (the league) for a long, long time. They win the championship and now all of a sudden, you want to kick him out?
‘A lot of things happened here with Liverpool, a lot of things. Come on. People need more time to mourn (the death of Diogo Jota on the eve of the season). It has a huge effect on the team what happened with Liverpool. Therefore they need to give Slot another season in order to get it right. Come on.’
Gullit is on a roll now, firmly in full flow with his gripes about English football.
Gullit is also incredulous at suggestions Liverpool could choose to replace Arne Slot (right)
Gullit spoke exclusively to Daily Mail Sport while working as a Laureus Ambassador in Madrid
‘I still find the Premier League very entertaining,’ he says, ‘but all of a sudden, the most important thing is corner kicks and throw-ins. What the hell is that?
‘It’s like the old days. They’re cheering when the ball goes out because they think, “Oh, we have an opportunity”. That’s funny.
‘All of a sudden, all these coaches came in for free-kicks and corner kicks and they become more important than managers because you see them on the pitch when something happens. They are the ones who want all the attention.’
Premier League players, generally, are an issue, too. Where he is seeing a continued emphasis on player development and acceleration through academies in his homeland, the financial muscle of the Premier League means wages and transfer fees continue to hit exorbitant new heights.
Youth team graduates are often viewed more in terms of their PSR sell-on value, rather than what they can bring to the first team on the pitch – and are replaced by a more expensive import.
It feels particularly appropriate when discussing Chelsea, who have one of the world’s most respected and productive youth academies but have spent more than a billion pounds in the four years of their BlueCo owners’ reign on stars raised elsewhere.
‘There’s a lot of players that earn too much money and are not that good,’ Gullit adds. ‘That creates a problem.
‘I’d rather have them from the grassroots than coming for all the players (around the world). That’s the problem of Chelsea. They’re coming from all of the other places.’
Set-pieces coaches such as Arsenal’s Nicolas Jover are also in Gullit’s sights
Chelsea have one of the best academies in the world but they have pivoted to spending exorbitant fees on players from outside, such as £40m on Man United’s Alejandro Garnacho
And before parting, Gullit still has time to get in an unprompted shot at Manchester United.
‘Man United think too much of the past,’ he says, likening them to a fellow European giant where he had his best years as a player. ‘That’s the past. It’s like Milan. That’s the past, also.
‘You have to find a new way in order to come back. You have to be proactive.’
The 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards take place in Madrid, a global city of sport, tonight. Visit: www.laureus.com
