London: Guus Hiddink has moved a step closer to a return to Chelsea by rejecting the opportunity of a technical role at his former club PSV Eindhoven.
Hiddink, whose two spells as manager at PSV made him the most successful Dutch coach in history, was offered a similar post to the sporting director position he has been sounded out for at Stamford Bridge.
The 64-year-old is still weighing up a competing offer from Ajax ahead of Friday night's crucial Euro 2012 qualification tie between Turkey, the national team currently managed by Hiddink, and second-placed rivals Belgium.
A defeat in Brussels will scupper Hiddink's hopes of winning a November play-offs spot and will open up the possibility of him being available this summer.
However, PSV's hopes of securing a romantic return for the man who led them to six league titles, four Dutch cups and 1988's European Cup triumph have ended.
"We spoke with Guus Hiddink and talked about him working in an advisory role," PSV sporting director Marcel Brands told Goal.com on Thursday. "He told us we can always ask him for advice but is very busy working with Turkey and he is not in a position to join us at the moment. He said he cannot do a job over the telephone."
Hiddink, who has an apartment in the centre of Amsterdam, is more open to working with Ajax, the newly crowned Eredivisie champions. Ajax are in the process of completely restructuring their coaching and boardroom set-up over the summer following a Johan Cruyff-led coup and want Hiddink to be in charge of identifying, scouting and recruiting talent.
However, there are doubts as to whether Ajax will be willing to pay the compensation due to the Turkish Football Federation to release Hiddink early from a contract that runs until next summer, even though there is a break clause which allows him to leave in October should they not qualify for Euro 2012.
Chelsea are hopeful that Hiddink will re-join the club that he led for a temporary period in 2009 following the dismissal of Luiz Felipe Scolari.
But sources close to the Dutchman say it is by no means certain that he will respond affirmatively to Roman Abramovich's overtures.
Even if he does, there is a strong possibility he will take up the sporting director role that Frank Arnesen left vacant when he joined Hamburg last week rather than succeed Carlo Ancelotti as manager. Talks, when they take place, are likely to centre on which of these posts Hiddink thinks is more suitable at his time of life.
However, Hiddink has ruled out the possibility of juggling a full-time role at Chelsea – or Ajax - while remaining as Turkey manager, as he did two years ago when he was in charge of Russia.
He said: "I talk with the president a lot about our futures and when I give an answer about this, then I'm answering already as if something is going on. But it's not going on.
"What I did in the past was a double function, but that was exceptional. It is impossible. I need to focus on one job.
"I made a contract with the federation president. There are no conditions that someone could do two jobs. I did it in the past because there was, let's say, a strong connection between myself and my employers at the time.
"It's not useful to talk about my future, because this team are in transition. They must go on. My future is more in the past.
"There is no single other approach. I can spend one or two hours reacting to the speculation, but that's not worth it. If you ask the Turkey players, we don't talk about it."
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