Im the boss: Avram Grant (centre) oversees
Chelseas first-team training in Surrey for the first time
yesterday
Two months ago to the day, a mellow Jose Mourinho sat in
the tranquil surroundings of the Beverly Hills Hotel and welcomed
Avram Grant into the Chelsea family. "Avram is here to help,"
explained a relaxed Mourinho as he outlined preparations for
Chelsea's pre-season tour of America. "He does not want to create
problems for people."
Just 62 days later it did not appear that way after Grant oversaw
his first training session as the club's new manager, a little over
12 hours after Mourinho's acrimonious exit. By all accounts,
Chelsea's training ground resembled a morgue yesterday as a squad
of highly-paid professionals began a new life under a man they have
treated with a mixture of suspicion and cynicism.
Many were still in shock when they arrived at the training ground
yesterday. Grant will need a big personality to carry it off but
there was more than a hint of Les Reed, the Charlton assistant who
froze when handed the top job, about him as he began his first day
in his new role. "It feels like there's been a death in the
family," said one first-team squad member yesterday and the sombre
mood has overshadowed preparations for Sunday's Premiership clash
with Manchester United. For most of the hour-long session, Grant
stood, arms folded, on the sidelines, trying to find his feet as a
Premier League manager and feeling his way into a job at one of the
world's biggest and most powerful clubs.
Many players suspect Grant familiarised himself with the
surroundings and set-up of a top European club and then seized the
opportunity when the time was right. According to sources at the
club, Grant believed he could become a sounding board for Chelsea's
players but most of them turned elsewhere for guidance. Now
Chelsea's disaffected stars no longer have a choice. They went
through the motions in the first training session Grant has
overseen since he quit as Israel coach following their unsuccessful
attempt to qualify for the 2006 World Cup but he was clearly
confident of his own ability.
Grant has never played the game at any respectable level yet
somehow convinced Abramovich that he could lead Chelsea to both
Premiership and European Cup success. Grant's achievements are
rather more modest. He has a celebrity marriage glamorous wife
Tzofit once drank her own urine during her live TV programme but
he prefers to be remembered for his managerial career.
In a varied but undistinguished career he led Maccabi Haifa to the
Israeli championship in 1992 and 1995 before moving to Hapoel
Haifa. Despite his solid reputation in Israel he became involved in
an unsavoury incident when he was arrested, along with the entire
Hapoel Haifa squad, after landing at Stansted Airport for the start
of a pre-season tour in 1995.
It is alleged that many of the squad had been drinking so heavily
during the flight the pilot called the police when they arrived in
London. They were eventually released without charge but Grant is
no stranger to controversy. He was sacked by Hapoel's billionaire
chairman Rubi Schapira following a mid-table finish but he returned
to Maccabi Tel Aviv at the expense of Dror Kashtan the following
year.
Kashtan, now in charge of the Israel team, had only just taken Tel
Aviv to the league and cup double, but he was replaced by the
ambitious Grant. Grant later won two successive league titles with
Maccabi Haifa but his team was roundly criticised for being too
negative.
He dropped Israeli idol Eyal Berkovic when he in charge of the
national team. Shlomo Scharf, Israel boss between 1996 and 2000,
claimed he was dropped by a television station when Grant refused
to take part in a post-match interview if his predecessor was on
the panel. Scharf said: "He is great at PR and getting on with the
wealthy but he knows very little about football.
"That's because he was never a player. He doesn't understand what
it is like to be out there and sweating. Football is about scoring
goals, but his tactics are about 0-0 draws and not losing." That
was an accusation that Grant failed to shrug off during his spell
in charge of Israel.
Berkovic was never picked again after they were beaten 3-1 by
Slovenia in the Euro 2004 qualifiers but the 2006 World Cup
campaign was more successful. They finished third behind France and
Switzerland (on goal difference) but it was their failure to run up
cricket scores against the Faroes that ended their hopes of
reaching the finals.
Despite his failings, Grant does have supporters. Former Israel,
Tottenham and Liverpool striker Ronny Rosenthal said: "If you take
Arsene Wenger, no one had heard of him when he came to this country
and look what he has built.
"There is always going to be pressure on the man taking over from
Jose Mourinho." Still, as it became evident yesterday, that was
only ever going to be one man.
