Ruud Gullit has lifted the lid on his shock sacking by Chelsea - and revealed why he still hasn't forgiven one his former coaches for the role he played in his departure.
The Dutchman arrived at Stamford Bridge as player 25 years ago, signing for Glenn Hoddle's side on a free transfer after a glittering spell in Italy with AC Milan and two years at Sampdoria.
Gullit was one of the first big name foreign stars to arrive in the English top-flight, but he would spend just a year as player with the Blues after being thrust into a player-manager role when Hoddle left to take the England job in 1996.
Then 33, and in his first managerial role, Gullit led Chelsea to a sixth place finish in the Premier League and won the FA Cup in his first season in charge.
He signed Gianfranco Zola, who would go on to become one of the club's greatest ever players, and also brought in fan favourites including Gianluca Vialli, Roberto di Matteo and Frank Leboeuf.
In February 1998, six months into Gullit's second season in charge, the club were second in the table and in the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup
However, things quickly turned sour when the former Holland midfielder was sacked out of the blue, with reports suggesting Gullit's financial demands were behind the club's surprise decision.
Gullit still disputes that to this day, but while he has put his treatment by Chelsea behind him, he has not forgotten how Gwyn Williams, one of his first team coaches and 'closest friends', behaved the day before the axe came down.
Writing in a special BBC column about his time at Stamford Bridge, Gullit revealed that he was in talks to sign Jaap Stam from PSV Eindhoven and Brian Laudrup from Rangers - until Williams got in the way to help Chelsea get rid of him.
'The day before I was sacked, I was playing golf with one of my coaches, Gwyn Williams, and a couple of the players, Franco [Zola] and Kevin Hitchcock,' Gullit wrote. 'I was trying to contact Laudrup during our round but I couldn't get hold of him, which was weird.
'It turns out Gwyn, who was one of my closest friends and who had helped me a lot, knew exactly what was going on and that they were going to fire me. He was just playing golf with me to keep me away, to make sure I didn't go to any of the places where Laudrup was.
'Being sacked was a horrible experience, and there was no reason to do what they did. They made out it was over my contract demands but that was rubbish because there had not been any negotiations. They were going to do it anyway.
'The worst thing was what Gwyn did to me, though - I couldn't understand doing that to someone when you spend every day with each other. He didn't even have to say anything specific, he could have just told me to watch out because something was going on.
'That was the worst thing anyone had ever done to me, in my career or in my life. That was the biggest disappointment, that someone could do that to me, and I can't forgive him for that, I really can't.
'Everything else, though, I have put behind me. Am I still angry about being sacked? No way. I swallowed that a long time ago and moved on. Am I glad I came to England? Yes, of course.'
Gullit didn't spend long out of the game, returning to management with Newcastle in the summer of 1998.
He led the Magpies to the FA Cup final in his first season in charge, but high-profile fall-outs with star striker Alan Shearer and Rob Lee damaged his reputation among the club's fanbase.
Gullit resigned just five games into the 1999-2000 season after a poor start and then spent five years out of management before taking charge at his former club Feyenoord in 2004.
Brief spells at LA Galaxy and Russian club Terek Grozny followed before a stint as Holland's assistant manager between 2017 and 2018.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com