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[Somewhat] familiar face to be Chelsea assistant manager.

According to reports, Former Blue Boudewijn Zenden will be named assistant manager by new interim manager Rafa Benitez. We await confirmation.

Mike Hewitt

He may not be the most familiar of faces to Chelsea fans, but Dutch midfielder Boudewijn 'Bolo' Zenden is definitely a former Blue. Unfortunately, his Chelsea career was blighted somewhat by injury, but he still managed to make 58 appearances for us, scoring 4 times. Stamford Bridge will be his first coaching job, having only played his last match at the end of the 2010-11 season. Though he made his name primarily away from the club, snagging a former player, and a pre-Abramovich one at that, is a pretty shrewd move by Benitez.

The Spaniard has been a profoundly-unpopular choice to succeed Roberto di Matteo, a man who, interestingly, appeared alongside Zenden in the 2002 FA Cup final in a ceremonial role. It's been debated whether Chelsea's manager really matters, and it can safely be said that the assistant matters far less than that. That's not to say he won't be a good assistant. Rafa, after all, clearly trusts him, and with plenty of experience in English football, he should be able to offer something to the club. You could say that his being Dutch is an asset, given the number of Belgians at Chelsea, but only one of them has remained at the club, and he's, you know, a Walloon. Oh well.

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