AVRAM GRANT last night claimed Chelsea have only played well in ONE game this season!
The new Blues boss took a swipe at Jose Mourinho by insisting that the style of football now had to improve under his leadership.
Mourinho left Chelsea last week after his failing relations with Roman Abramovich and rows over the team made his position untenable.
Grant has endured a rough time since his move from director of football but chose yesterday to answer some of his critics with some points of his own.
The Israeli said: “This season we haven’t played well. Except for the match against Birmingham City and for 20 minutes against Reading.
“The football has not always been good and now we want to make it better.
“That is difficult to do when there are games every three days but we want to change the style that Chelsea play.
“I am not being disrespectful to what has happened before.
“The first two years under Jose were successful and the team did well but after that I’m not sure.
“The base which is there is very good and that is what we will build on.
“We are not talking about taking it from one extreme to another. Just to change the style 20 to 25 per cent.”
Grant is hopeful Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Ricardo Carvalho might all be back within two weeks.
And he insisted that no demands have been made of him by Abramovich — but insisted that winning everything is not beyond the Blues.
Grant added: “Everything has happened so quickly that I haven’t spoken to the owner so much. But I don’t see why Chelsea cannot win in every competition this season.
“The base of Chelsea is very good and the team is not in a bad position in sixth place in the league.
“It’s only the beginning of the season and sometimes we start very well and other times not but it is better to change now.
“You can see that things have not gone well in the last month but things happen and we need to get better.
“We have a game every three days so it is not the ideal time to try and change things — but we have to try.”
Mourinho has decided to go into hiding until he gets another job in management.
The former Chelsea chief said: “At this time at which I find I have a break in my professional career, it is my wish to guarantee absolute calm, whether for myself or for the people who are closest to me.
“Because I do not want, under whatever pretext, to be a source of destabilisation for anyone who wants me to be, from this moment on I am not going to make any more comments about any subject related to my professional activity.
“I ask for the understanding of the mass media organisations for the decision that I have taken.
“The next interview that I give will be in my role as technical manager in my next club.”
Meanwhile, Blues skipper John Terry is set to escape any disciplinary action for attempting to grab ref Mike DeanÂ’s red card at Manchester United on Sunday. But Chelsea could be in hot water for their playersÂ’ collective response to Mikel John ObiÂ’s sending off.
The England captain tried to grab the card while protesting to Dean and there have been suggestions the FA could take retrospective action.
However, the onus would be on Dean to have responded by giving Terry a yellow or red card at the time and the FA are very unlikely to pursue any action against the centre-back.
Dean did, though, state in his match report that he was unhappy about the reaction of at least four Chelsea players who surrounded him after the sending off.
Although the incident is not detailed as a mass confrontation, the fact Dean has reported both that incident and another that took place shortly afterwards means the FA will be forced to consider disciplinary action.
If they do proceed, then Chelsea are likely to be fined for the disorderly conduct of their players, though given the nature of the offence the fine will be towards the lower end of the scale. The FA have refused to comment, saying they do not divulge the contents of a refereeÂ’s report.
MikelÂ’s appeal against his red card for a foul on Patrice Evra has been rejected by the FA.
The midfielder will now have to serve a three-match ban for serious foul play.
ChelseaÂ’s case was not helped by the fact FIFA do not permit the downgrading of cards from red to yellow. To have succeeded in their disciplinary appeal, the Premier League champions would have had to prove that there should not have been any form of sanction taken against the player for his tackle on United defender Evra.
Chelsea boss Grant said after his side’s 2-0 defeat: “It was the wrong decision and it changed the whole game.”
omgukilledkenny
His style looks even more boring lei..
turbo_drift
Originally posted by omgukilledkenny:
His style looks even more boring lei..
x2
Agenda
he made mourinho's legionaires even more hateful of him now..
zocoss
He only had one game in charge and away to the champions somemore... give him some time to settle in first... then we can make a better judgement on him...