Guus Hiddink appointed Chelsea manager until the end of the season

I owe you a lot and we will all miss you.

More recently, he has been out of work since being fired by the Netherlands in June – during the latter stages of his country’s unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the 2016 European Championship.

Former Chelsea assistant Ray Wilkins also backed Hiddink, who is set to return to Stamford Bridge for a second stint as interim manager after replacing Luiz Felipe Scolari in 2009, to be a success.

The Dutchman will be present for Saturday’s meeting with Sunderland but Steve Holland and Eddie Newton will take charge of first-team affairs.

Even with nine defeats in the first 16 Premier League games, a calamitous start for any club, let alone champions, the supporters have still sung his name continuously.

“You’d think his track record would buy him a bit of time, but I think on the other side of the coin you look at what’s happened at Chelsea this year and there has to be something fundamentally wrong”.

Mourinho’s tumultuous second spell at Chelsea ended Thursday “by mutual consent” immediately after he had finished a Christmas dinner with the rest of the squad and staff at the club’s Cobham training ground.

The report also claims that Mourinho’s agents have already contacted Manchester United to discuss the possibility of him taking over from Van Gaal.

Owner Roman Abramovich continues to hold regular conversations with chairman Bruce Buck, directors Marina Granovskaia and Eugene Tenenbaum as well as Chelsea’s technical director Michael Emenalo over the best course of action to arrest the team’s alarming slump in form.

“Only time will tell if there’s a better performance or reaction from the players. He’ll go elsewhere and do a wonderful job for someone”, he said.

“With the ball, more often than not there’s no problem. They’ve not worked hard enough”.

“He is immensely proud of his eight trophies at Chelsea, and thanks the fans for all their support throughout his two spells at the club”, it said.

At Thursday’s pre-match press conference, only two hours before Mourinho was shown the door at Stamford Bridge, Karanka backed his close friend to turn it around.