Chelsea; Grant Saga Reaches Inevitable Conclusion
The only surprise surrounding the dismissal of Avram Grant as Chelsea manager earlier today (May 24) is that there are still people who believe that a couple of trophy successes could have saved the Israeli’s job. While defeat in the Champions League final and the Carling Cup final and a second-placed Premier League finish represent an unwanted hat-trick, victory in all three would still not have been enough to convince the Chelsea board to retain the 53-year-old. Grant was nothing more than a stop-gap, and there is every chance that he knew it. He signed a four-year contract upon being appointed in the wake of Jose Mourinho’s equally nonsensical departure, but surely did so simply to ensure a reasonable pay-off. After all, how much would you want to be paid to enter into a job that you had no chance of retaining, and which brought with it fierce press criticism and a lack of popularity with fans not seen since George Graham took over at Tottenham Hotspur? Yet in finally putting Grant and the rest of us out of our misery, the Chelsea board has proven once again that they have no idea how to run a football club. Roman Abramovich’s billions have ensured a degree of on-field success over the last few seasons but in truth it would be hard not to be successful with that kind of backing regardless of what is going on behind the scenes. The awful truth is that Peter Kenyon, Bruce Buck, Abramovich et al are under the misguided notion that they are running Real Madrid. They believe that they have a divine right to win everything and have decreed that failure cannot and will not be tolerated. Actually, strike the word ‘failure’ and replace it with the phrase ‘second place’. Any other club would have seen Grant’s achievements as a measure of success and a platform from which to build another challenge for honours next season. Not Chelsea. Not this overblown, over-hyped, power-hungry obsessive lot. After Grant’s dismissal even Buck argued against himself, commenting that “although we never would have thought in September when Jose Mourinho left that we would be able to make it into a Champions League final as we did - and that is fantastic - Chelsea are here to win trophies.” What’s that Bruce? He’s exceeded your expectations so you are going to sack him? Explain to us then how exactly could he have kept his job? Chelsea came within a coat of paint of being crowned champions of Europe when John Terry’s penalty skimmed Edwin van der Sar’s left hand post in Moscow, yet one suspects that even if the former England captain had converted the situation would be no different today. The Chelsea hatchet men would have come up with an alternative reason to make a change at the top. And why? Because not only do Abramovich and his cronies want to win, they want to do it with style. Grant’s Chelsea were not tactically dissimilar from Mourinho’s version, and were widely criticised for their style of play. Indeed it is reasonable to argue that their economic attacking intent was partly responsible for their inability to win the Premier League. It is no accident that Grant’s side went into the final round of games with a massively inferior goal difference to that of Manchester United. Yet for all that the Blues lost just four matches (including the Champions League final shoot-out defeat) in the eight months of Grant’s reign. Even more important than adopting a swagger in their style, Chelsea must now also win with a so-called ‘big name’ at the helm. Grant just isn’t box office, not a man to put bums on seats at Stamford Bridge, and not a man to put the affairs of the club on the front and the back pages of the daily tabloids on a consistent basis. Mourinho was, but irritatingly he was not one for letting those at boardroom level decide upon the make-up of the team and the squad. Chelsea’s search for the ’right man’ for the job looks set to continue until they can find a superstar coach who doesn’t mind having a group of players foisted upon him by those at boardroom level and being told to get on with it. Avram Grant only ticks one of those two boxes, and he and everyone else knew it all along. By Stephen Orford 24 May 2008
