IÂ’m the boss: Avram Grant (centre) oversees ChelseaÂ’s first-team training in Surrey for the first time yesterdayTwo 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.
