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Ruud Gullit

Chelsea's sacking of Andre Villas-Boas came under fire Monday with former Blues boss Luis Felipe Scolari warning it will be "hell" for whoever succeeds the Portuguese at Stamford Bridge.

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SI.com: Jonathan Wilson: Tournament of all-time great club teamsupdated: Tue Jun 28 2011 16:59:00

Editor's note: This is Part 1 of a four-part imaginary tournament between 16 of the all-time greatest club teams in soccer history. You can find Part 2 here.

SI.com: Jonathan Wilson: Barcelona 2011 vs. AC Milan 1990updated: Tue Apr 19 2011 09:06:00

Ask anybody who's done it, and they'll tell you that sustaining success is much harder than achieving it in the first place. The great Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann refused ever to spend longer than three years at a club because he felt that after that he could no longer motivate players. It may be that in the modern world of soccer in which money begets money, success is easier to sustain than previously, at least on a domestic level. On a European scale what that means is a cluster of perhaps eight or so super powers constantly battling for the Champions League, which is surely the main reason no side has successfully defended the title since the AC Milan of Arrigo Sacchi in 1990.

SI.com: Georgina Turner: Great international hat tricksupdated: Mon Sep 06 2010 12:28:00

As well as upping weekend revenue for DIY stores everywhere, the international break produced two hat-tricks -- one each for Jermain Defoe (England) and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Netherlands). Variety, technique, a dollop of selfishness, they all go into the mix to score a treble at this level, and competitive international hat tricks are getting harder to come by -- the last three World Cups have produced about a quarter of the total produced by the first three. Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain bagged one this summer with the same cool exterior as his predecessor Gabriel Batistuta, but an international hat trick of tournament-changing magnitude, of tear-jerking quality or just of eyebrow-raising novelty is a rare thing indeed. Here's a list of memorable ones:

SI.com: Greg Lalas: It's time to stop stereotyping foreign coaches in MLSupdated: Mon Jan 18 2010 14:13:00

The failures of foreign coaches litter the annals of Major League Soccer like cigarette butts on the sidewalk outside a bar. Such luminaries as Carlos Alberto Parreira, Bora Milutinovic, Ruud Gullit, Frank Stapleton and Bobby Houghton have all come to America, struggled to find a groove within MLS' arcane rules and gotten out of Dodge as quickly as possible, leaving behind a club in turmoil and a chorus of tsk-tsking pundits.

SI.com: Grant Wahl: Galaxy honcho Leiweke wants another rulebook rewriteupdated: Tue Sep 23 2008 16:31:00

The man who brought the "Beckham Rule" to Major League Soccer now wants to change it in a dramatic fashion. And if Tim Leiweke gets his way, David Beckham and MLS' other marquee players wouldn't count a dime against the league's salary cap.

SI.com: Luis Bueno: Mediocre L.A. clubs don't befit city's great soccer cultureupdated: Fri Aug 15 2008 12:30:00

There's no other soccer city in the United States quite like Los Angeles.

SI.com: Jonah Freedman: Galaxy handed down ultimatum from big bossupdated: Mon Aug 04 2008 14:14:00

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The soap opera that is the Los Angeles Galaxy just gets weirder and weirder.

SI.com: Soccer America: Is Ruud Gullit the man to revive the L.A. Galaxy?updated: Fri May 23 2008 12:37:00

There are more pounds around the middle and less hair up top these days as perhaps the most powerful yet graceful player ever produced in Europe slides toward his 46th birthday, his playing days long past and an oft-aborted coaching career in its fourth phase.

Beckham makes 100updated: Fri Apr 04 2008 13:56:00

CNN's Phil Black reports on David Beckham's 100-match milestone for England and what may be up next.

SI.com: World Soccer: Beckham's first season in MLS showed mixed resultsupdated: Mon Dec 31 2007 16:02:00

Question: When is a fiasco not a fiasco? Well, the answer has to be, "when it's David Beckham." His much-ballyhooed, incredibly hyped arrival in the U.S. to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy managed to take in, simultaneously, both ends of Kipling's equation: both triumph and disaster.

Kids: Beckham ignored usupdated: Mon Nov 26 2007 23:05:00

David Beckham is accused of snubbing a group of young cancer survivors in Australia. CNN's Rob Marciano reports.

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