On the following Monday, two days after an unconvincing victory over Barnsley, Vialli was offered the position of player-manager. The first signs of unease had come at a 40-minute meeting with Hutchinson on Thursday 5 February. "It was a very good atmosphere, at least in the beginning; the end was a little strange," Gullit recounted. "We talked about players and staff, about what would happen with development and about bringing in new players like Brian Laudrup and Jaap Stam [the pounds 10m-rated defender at PSV] Then Colin asked me what I wanted for my contract I asked for the same as when I first signed for the club. When I became player-manager I was paid only for being a player, not a manager But Colin said nothing I thought it was all part of the bluff, but I felt strange.

When Gullit said that all he needed was an offer and he would have accepted, it was the classic cry of the ruined gambler. For the first time in his life, Gullit misjudged his worth.But money, Gullit believed, was not the real issue. But his initial demand for pounds 2m a year - pounds 3,365,000 before tax, according to Hutchinson - might have raised an eyebrow at Old Trafford where Alex Ferguson is paid a third as much. Never has an off-field football rumpus been so eloquently expressed. On Thursday, the innocence of Gianluca Vialli and the gruff bonhomie of Ken Bates allied with the voice of reason, Colin Hutchinson, to produce a plausible condemnation of Ruud Gullit; the following morning, in the bowels of Scribes, the west London dining club, Gullit played the role of injured party to perfection. If it was an act for the cameras, last week's Oscar nominations were premature.

As a parable of modern football, the saga takes some beating. This was no run-of-the-mill managerial scuffle, but a stylish post-Bosman Euro assassination meticulously played out in front of a forest of transmission aerials and barricades of photographers Typical Chelsea melodrama. We had to wait for the book to find out the reasons for Kevin Keegan's abrupt departure from St James' Park But that was parochial nonsense in comparison. The answer then lay closer to the City than Newcastle United, and so it may be with Chelsea; stability and continuity is everything when the stock market is watching. On either side of the divide lay men well versed in the art of publicity; Vialli asking the media for their patience one minute, Gullit thanking them for their support the next, emotional Blu-Tack on which to hang their propaganda.Gullit overplayed his hand That much is clear. Gullit began his Scribes soliloquy by listing his palmares as a coach: an FA Cup in his first season, a semi-final of the Coca-Cola Cup - the second leg will be on Wednesday - quarter-final of the European Cup-Winners' Cup and second place in the Premiership. WITH big players and big business come big dramas. Feyenoord in particular have the pedigree to challenge for what has become a highly coveted second place..

PSV know that any major slip-ups would give the chasing pack a sniff of that second spot.Among those are Feyenoord, Vitesse Arnhem and Heerenveen - all eight points behind PSV. That would be half the formidable lead Ajax held before the two met in Amsterdam in December.Ajax, searching for their first league win over PSV since the 1994-95 season, have the added incentive of avenging that 4-3 defeat at home to PSV. Ajax have injury concerns over Jari Litmanen and Danny Blind, while PSV have a clean bill of health, except for Gilles de Bilde.Ajax's strength has generally been at the back. The team have let in only nine goals in 21 games this season, but they will be mindful of the four PSV scored against them in December.PSV have proved more porous, conceding 26 goals.