Roman wanted him to take Director of Football job
again
AVRAM GRANT walked into Roman Abramovich's lavish
six-storey London mansion at 1.45pm yesterday.
At precisely 4.30pm the furious Israeli shuffled out the back
door after being sacked as Chelsea boss. During the
two-and-three-quarter-hour meeting with the Blues' billionaire
owner, director Eugene Tenenbaum and advisor Eugene Schvidler in
the heart of the Russian's Knightsbridge house in Lowndes Square,
Grant was:
Told to RESIGN.
Then offered an incredible £3million PAY CUT to
stay at Stamford Bridge. Grant, who took charge just eight months
ago after the fall-out of Jose Mourinho's controversial sacking,
was livid.
He left Abramovich's mansion and drove to his home in St John's
Wood. There he picked up his wife and two children before driving
to Chelsea's Cobham training ground in his black Audi.
Once there he cleared his desk and then left. No goodbyes, no
farewells, nothing. Grant spoke of his disgust to friends back in
his homeland. And one friend revealed: "Roman offered Avram the
opportunity to resign but he was having none of it. Avram said:
‘You will have to sack me because I am not quitting.'"
Abramovich then offered Grant back his old Director of Football
job on a new £2million-a-year, two-year deal. But as Grant earned
£3.5m a year as Chelsea boss, he was effectively being offered a
£3m pay cut to stay at the club.
Another pal declared: "Roman is treating Chelsea like one of his
businesses in Russia. The problem is its not about metal, oil and
gas, it's people he is dealing with and he is being totally
ruthless.
"Avram said he doesn't trust them any more. It was not a
friendly meeting all. Avram does not want anything to do with the
club at all now. "He didn't even want to discuss his compensation,
which will run into millions. He told Roman to speak to his
lawyer."
Grant, 53, is now a possible candidate to replace Sven Goran
Eriksson at Manchester City next season. Another pal in Israel
added: "Avram took the job because of his friendship with Roman. He
trusted him. He knew it was going to be difficult to replace
Mourinho but he accepted the challenge.
"The team were in a bad state when he started but Avram got them
going again and then steered them to the Champions League final and
second in the Premier League. "He thinks he has done very well and
has been sacked unfairly." In the end, Grant lost the Champions
League final on penalties, guided the Blues to runners-up spot in
the Premier League and the Carling Cup Final, where they lost to
Spurs.
His overall record reads: played 54, won 36, drawn 13, lost 5 —
ironically the lowest loss percentage of any manager in Chelsea
history! Grant had two years left on his contract so Chelsea will
face a huge compensation claim of more than £7m.
The pal added: "Avram thinks Chelsea are totally ruthless. He
knew over the last few weeks there had been a whispering campaign
against him and he's got a good idea of who was behind it.
"Once he was told they didn't want him as coach he didn't want
any more to do with them. "He wasn't interested in a Director of
Football role. He wanted to carry on doing what he was doing. "But
don't write him off. He wants to carry on somewhere and he will
bounce back pretty quickly. "He is a very honest and tough
character — and a man of his word. He will be back."
Grant's future has been under debate almost from the moment he
inherited the Stamford Bridge reins from Mourinho. A statement on
the club's website, www.chelseafc.com read: "Chelsea Football Club
can confirm that Avram Grant has had his contract as manager
terminated today. This follows meetings over the last two days.
"Everybody at Chelsea FC would like to thank Avram for his
contribution since taking over as manager last September. We will
now be concentrating all our efforts on identifying a new manager
and there will be no further comment until that appointment is
made."
The futures of Chelsea assistants Steve Clarke and Henk ten Cate
are unclear but no official word has yet been given.