Dutch coach Guus Hiddink is interested in succeeding Sven-Goran Eriksson as England manager, his agent revealed on Wednesday. Eriksson will step down from his post after the World Cup finals this year and Hiddink is considered one of the frontrunners for the job. "There's been no contact but he would definitely be interested in hearing from the FA," Hiddink's agent, Cees van Nieuwenhuizen, told BBC Radio. "The whole football environment in England, from a professional level, can be considered as the best in the world -- maybe not the way they play football every now and then -- but the exposure of English football all over the world is a big thing." Hiddink has proved his ability to build strong teams through his work with Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven and the Australian national team with who he is working on part-time basis. "He is a great team builder, he is proven especially at PSV in the last couple of years when he lost a lot of players, Lee Young-Pyo to England, Park Ji-Sung and then this season he lost five players again.
Sven-Goran Eriksson "He seems able to build a team in a relatively short time because now they are leading the Dutch league again and are in the Champions League with a relatively new team," said Nieuwenhuizen. Hiddink helped Australia reach the World Cup finals for the second time in their history. Nieuwenhuizen said that British media, which was the main reason behind Eriksson's problems, will not deter him from pursuing the post of England manager. "He (Hiddink) has been dealing with them when he was with Real Madrid and Valencia in Spain. He has been dealing with it when he was in Turkey with Fenerbahce," said Nieuwenhuizen. "We don't live too far away from England, so we follow the media in England and we know what's going on there, but that would definitely not be a reason for him to say 'no' beforehand." Bolton manager Sam Allardyce, Middlesbrough's Steve McClaren, Charlton's Alan Curbishley and former Celtic boss Martin O'Neill are among names tipped to replace Eriksson.
