Guus Hiddink unfairly put on the spot at PSV: “Get out of here—I don’t want to see you anymore.”
1 min readHiddink shares in a podcast a nice anecdote about his glory years at PSV. Hiddink once 'unfairly' put Romário on edge at PSV, but he quickly regretted it.
Hiddink lays bare how he once incorrectly left Romario out of the squad. During his time at PSV, Hiddink had trouble keeping the Brazilian focused because he preferred to follow his own plan. Romario, however, delivered often enough, yet Hiddink came up with something.
"Yes, I once made a mistake", Hiddink begins during the MidMid podcast from Play Sports as he looks back on an incident between the former PSV coach and the Brazilian during his time at PSV.
We sometimes said: 'Romario, come earlier once'. Then we have a cup of tea or coffee with the boys and talk for a moment before we go training. 'Coach, I'm always on time, right?' Then I said: 'Yes, you're always on time', but for him being on time was one minute before the meeting time, but based on my watch."
"I had at the time one meeting for RKC and three days later we played against Steaua Bucharest. I thought: 'I need to somehow provoke Romario'. So, although I normally never do that, I set my watch one minute the wrong way. I knew he was really punctual to the minute. So I start at eleven o'clock and Romario wasn't there yet. One or two minutes later the door opens and I say: 'Get out of here. I don't want to see you anymore'.", Hiddink now laughs about his planned action back then.
"Just watch the match, he was completely on fire. He made fantastic dribbles, he scored the goal, and he made the decisions. But after the match, I was stuck with myself. I said: 'Romario, you saved us tonight, but I haven't been pleasant. I moved my watch for the meeting.' He said: 'I already thought something like that, but that did get me sharp.' Done, sand over it", as Guus Hiddink said.
Comments8
I like that Hiddink says it was unjust, but still... telling a superstar 'Wegwezen, ik wil je niet meer zien' as a tactic is bold. Glad it worked against Steaua, though. Romario being 'sharp' from that reaction sounds very on-brand for him.
Honestly, the best part is Romario calling him out with that "it kept me sharp" vibe. That's classic PSV spirit, get the best out of your star and move on.
I get the intention, but telling someone
I love that story because it shows what kind of mindset Hiddink had, he wanted impact right away. Romario being
That line
Honestly fair play to Hiddink for owning it. One minute wrong on purpose and Romario still turns up and runs the show. Funny story, but the self-awareness after is the best part.
To be fair, Hiddink was trying to manage the group and Romario's timing, but
Hiddink sounds so funny here, messing with the clock just to get Romario motivated. The fact he admits it was unfair makes it even better. And yeah, Romario immediately proofed that it worked.