Harry Harris - Ruud Gullit - Portrait of a Genius

But Gullit turned his back on all of these offers, with the moment the whole of Chelsea had been waiting for coming on Bank Holiday Monday, 29 May 1995. Colin Hutchinson recalls: ‘I was just settling down to watch the Bolton-Reading play-off final, when Ruud called. By the time we had finished talking, Reading were 2–0 up and Gullit had agreed to sign. One of the reasons behind his decision, he said, was that Chelsea played in white socks – and he had always won things playing for teams who wore white socks!

‘Glenn was halfway across the Atlantic at the time, on his way to Florida for a holiday. I had to ring his hotel and leave a coded message for him saying, ‘The man from Italy has said, yes’. He was delighted.’

Hoddle left the final details to Hutchinson. ‘The second time we went over, the deal was done,’ says Hoddle. ‘We discovered Ruud wanted to play in English football and he wanted to play for Chelsea. Every side needs someone like Ruud Gullit, a player who can win a game with one pass, a player who is a cut above the rest and a player who can hurt the opposition by doing what comes naturally.’

Hutchinson made one of the most fruitful, exciting and profitable journeys of his life when he travelled to Milan to complete the deal for Gullit on Tuesday, 30 May 1995. He said: ‘I flew out to Genoa to meet Gullit’s lawyer and draft the contract. The following day I met up with the lawyer and Ruud once again. Within ten minutes he had said ‘yes’. I had just completed arguably the biggest deal ever done in British football. I took out my camera and asked the lawyer to take a picture of me with Ruud to capture the moment. We went out for lunch and while we were eating an agent rang Ruud on his mobile phone and said that Tottenham and QPR were interested in signing him. I had a smile to myself because I already had his signature.

‘Then I flew home via Frankfurt. At Frankfurt airport I sat next to a Leyton Orient fan and we got talking and he asked me what I did. I told him and said I had just signed Gullit for Chelsea. Then two English bricklayers came and sat by us and one was saying how he had just telephoned a friend to pick him up at the airport. He said his mate was an Arsenal fan and was winding him up that Chelsea had signed Ruud Gullit. And the Orient fan turned to him and said, “That’s no wind-up – and here’s the man who has done the deal”. I just sat there grinning and feeling absolutely fantastic.’

Chelsea had successfully fought off counter-bids from Galatasaray, Bayern Munich, the club Jurgen Klinsmann joined from Spurs, Hoddle’s former French club Monaco, and Gullit’s old club Feyenoord, plus a number of Japanese teams which offered him a fortune, notably Yokohama Flugels.

Diplomatically Gullit would not divulge why he rejected the other offers. He explained: ‘I enjoy life every day and I never take decisions for a long period. I always follow my instinct, which has rarely misled me. My old club Feyenoord would have liked to have me back. But the city of London appealed more to me than the port of Rotterdam. But the real reason for not joining Feyenoord, Galatasaray or any of the other clubs who knocked on my door this summer, I will not tell. Whatever I say will be wrong in the fans’ eyes and in the opinion of people who play for those clubs. As soon as Chelsea turned up on my doorstep and I had met Glenn Hoddle, I knew I wanted to go an play at Stamford Bridge.’

Chelsea knew that gates would soar and commercial spinoffs would follow. Hutchinson said: ‘We wanted a player who would put bums on seats and we have certainly got that. And, remember, he has not cost us a single penny in terms of a transfer fee.’ In London, Gullit mania was instant. Hutchinson said: ‘On the day of the announcement, the reaction from the fans was incredible. The switchboard at Stamford Bridge was jammed, there was a queue of thirty-five people at the club’s shop that morning when it opened. People wanted to buy shirts and have Gullit’s name put on them. Requests for membership forms and season tickets are coming in thick and fast so his magic is already working.’

The Chelsea players, much the same as their fans, were staggered by the signing of Gullit. Scott Minto was sunning himself in Gran Canaria, when he caught up with the news. ‘A couple of days before we actually signed him, a few people had been coming up to us and talking about it, saying we were going to get him. We had read a few things in the papers but it sounded a bit ridiculous and we didn’t take much notice of it at the time. Then I rang home and my mum said: “Did you know they’ve just signed Ruud Gullit?” Because she doesn’t know anything about the game or who he is, I knew she wasn’t making it up. Then someone else rang home to check and we found out it was true. It took a little while to sink in but we all thought it was brilliant.’

When Chelsea club captain and England international Dennis Wise escaped a three-month jail sentence on 2 June, he talked about his relief that he will be teaming up with Gullit rather than starting the season in jail. A judge overturned his convictions for attacking a taxi driver and damaging his cab. Wise said later: ‘I want to put it all behind me and get on with the rest of my career. I am happy and am going on holiday fairly shortly. I will be all right for the beginning of the season, when we’ve got Ruud Gullit to look forward to.’

Brian Glanville devoted his Sunday People column to Chelsea’s new player. He wrote: ‘Ruud Gullit’s signing for Chelsea is a tremendous coup for the Stamford Bridge club. Even today, at the age of 32, after all those fearful operations on his right knee, Gullit is among the few great players in the world. Fans will come to see him. There’s no doubt at all about his ability to play as sweeper as he demonstrated in his early years with Feyenoord. It’s really just a question of whether the Chelsea team will be able to adjust to the somewhat unfamiliar tactics … He shouldn’t find it too hard to work with Hoddle, and the younger Chelsea players will surely learn from him. Let’s just hope he stays longer in London than Jurgen Klinsmann.’

The boardroom split between chairman Ken Bates and the late co-director Matthew Harding even managed to involve Gullit. Bates pointed out that he authorised the acquisition of Gullit without Harding’s millions to back him up. Bates said: ‘We proved what a solid financial concern Chelsea is with the signing of Ruud Gullit, one of the biggest names in world soccer. It was all financed from within the club’s budget, without having to ask Matthew Harding or anyone else for a single penny.’

In the first week of June, Gullit fulfilled his final commitments with Sampdoria on a tour of Hong Kong and China, a popular destination for many leading clubs in the summer. It also enabled Gullit to combine the football with four days of highly lucrative promotional work in Japan. Back in London, Ken Bates was airing his plans for a floatation of Chelsea. With the signing of Gullit on a reputed £16, 000 a week, Mr Bates joked: ‘We need a flotation to help pay his wages!’

The Dutch revolution in English football continued when Dennis Bergkamp signed for Arsenal. Bergkamp became hooked on Spurs, and in particular their midfield maestro Glenn Hoddle, from the moment he saw them on Dutch television as a five-year-old. Bergkamp revealed: ‘I had only one idol when I was young and that was Glenn Hoddle. My family went on holiday to England one year and we visited White Hart Lane. My dad bought me a Spurs strip and a mug with the crest on it. Every year after that I would get a new Spurs strip and it always had to have Glenn’s number on it. He was the reason I supported them. He was such a wonderful player. When I played football with my mates out on the street it would always be an FA Cup Final with Tottenham in it and I, of course, would be Hoddle. I still have a soft spot for them and look for their results every week.’