So we [Bates and Colin Hutchinson, Chelsea's long-serving managing director] decided to let him concentrate on his playing and coaching. We organised others to look after the administration and deal with the press and players' contracts."That arrangement started with Hoddle - getting him in was the first stage. He made a great number of changes at all levels and he bought in Mark Hughes and Gullit. People talk about Milan, but look at the state of their pitch I've walked on it. It's terrible."We never doubted Ruud would be the man to take over when Glenn Hoddle left," Bates added. "We had been talking to him for a year and got to know the guy and he is something different.

He was an influence behind the scenes - even under Hoddle."Most player-managers fail because, instead of working 10 hours a week, they are now working 60 - they can't cope. "One: who can afford him? Two: where will he live? He and his girlfriend are very happy here, he likes the style of London. Three: what can he do elsewhere that he can't do at Chelsea? In Italy the presidents interfere, he wouldn't last long under that. Ruud Gullit will be presented with a new contract this summer - regardless of Chelsea's result in Saturday's FA Cup final against Middlesbrough. Gullit, who adapted his playing contract and extended it by a year when he succeeded Glenn Hoddle as manager last summer, will be offered another deal as soon as he returns from a post-final club tour and personal holiday. "We have mentioned it but neither of us wants to talk about it until after the final," Ken Bates, the Chelsea chairman, said yesterday. "He'll probably go on holiday then, but we will talk to him when he comes back."Although Gullit has been linked with a number of clubs, including his former team, Milan, and his boyhood favourites, Feyenoord, Chelsea are confident the Dutchman will stay.Bates cited three reasons for this. The ban has been replaced by a fine of 50,000 rupees [pounds 775]..

Then, after some dogged batting from Keith Newell and Bill Athey in the afternoon, Mushtaq took the final four wickets.Devon Malcolm and Phil DeFreitas gave Derbyshire the first-day edge by taking five wickets each among the 15 wickets to fall at Lord's. The visitors finished on 123 for 5, after Middlesex opted to bat and were bowled out for 146. They were 2 for 2 before Mike Gatting and Paul Weekes added 79, but wickets fell regularly throughout the afternoon, with Malcolm and DeFreitas in outstanding form.BENSON AND HEDGES CUP Quarter-final draw (ties to be played 27 May): Leicestershire v Somerset; Yorkshire v Northamptonshire; Kent v Warwickshire; Essex v Surrey.Pakistan have lifted a two-year Test ban on Aamir Sohail after he apologised for making allegations of match-fixing and betting. ROUND-UP Somerset's Pakistani leg-spinner, Mushtaq Ahmed, maintained his spell over Sussex at Taunton yesterday, taking 6 for 70 in 31 overs, as Sussex were dismissed for 241. On the wrist-spinners' two first-class appearances against Sussex for Somerset, Mushtaq has taken 12 for 175 in 1993 and 10 for 116 in 1995.He struck twice yesterday morning, as Keith Greenfield and Neil Taylor both fell lbw, the latter without offering a stroke. She was, nevertheless, delighted with this proof that the stallion's education was progressing on the right lines when she defeated Geoff Luckett on Clover Chief and Tim Stockdale on Halida.The brothers Damian and Nick Charles won the later Petplan Family Pair Relay.

They had looked in danger of defeat at the hands of Michael Whitaker and his nephew Robert (son of John) until Virtual Village Silver Cinder incurred a four-second penalty with Robert when he had the last fence down.Results, Digest, page 29. "The first time I jumped him I loved him," she said of the horse who had been the victor of two other contests with her before winning by the comfortable margin of 4.79sec. Admittedly, some of Lampard's rivals were out for a quiet school at the start of this five-day meeting. Di Lampard won the first show jumping contest of this year's Royal Windsor Horse Show when she rode Jenny Willment's chestnut stallion, Audacity, to victory in yesterday's Land Rover Grade A Jumping. Lampard acquired the ride as the result of an "out of the blue" telephone call from the owner last year. The ban has been replaced by a fine of 50,000 rupees [pounds 775]..