GRANT: I'VE BEEN BETRAYED
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Axed Grant in fury at 'ruthless' Chelsea
SACKED Chelsea boss Avram Grant last night launched an astonishing attack on billionaire owner Roman Abramovich and blasted: "I feel completely betrayed."
Israeli Grant, dressed all in black, walked into the Russian's six-storey London mansion at 1.45pm yesterday to be told he was axed. The meeting — less than 72 hours after the Blues' heart-breaking European Cup Final shoot-out defeat to Manchester United — lasted just under three hours.
Barcelona boss Frank Rijkaard is now hot favourite to replace the man who took charge after Jose Mourinho was axed just eight months ago. And Grant told friends in Israel: "I took on the job at a very difficult time but Chelsea have pulled the plug on me. I feel very hurt, upset and angry."
Abramovich offered Grant the position of Director of Football at Stamford Bridge but he turned down the £2million-a-year job. A pal of Grant in Israel revealed: "Avram said he doesn't trust them any more. "It was not a friendly meeting at all. Avram does not want anything to do with the club now. He didn't even want to discuss his compensation, which will run into millions. He told Roman to speak to his lawyer."
Another pal in Israel said: "Avram thinks Chelsea are totally ruthless." Now tell us what you think of Grant's sacking.
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work by the axe, die by the axe?
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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.
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No offence...but Chelsea is a big club. You should know the consquences after signing a contract with them.
No silverware = off you go.
Why did Mourhino go then? If you cannot tahan the pressure, you should not have sign a contract at the first place.
The worst part is that, your players does not listen to you...=(
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very æ— æƒ… hor.. but this is not the 1st time roman abramovich do this kind of thing liao la..
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in a team of lets says 23 players, you have 3 players against the mangers and off the 3 players go, but if you have 18 or more players against the manager?
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pretty sad for him though
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Expected la.
Roman Abramovich had the benefit of seeing Chelsea win 2 trophies each season for 3 seasons, and then suddenly this year no trophy.
Abramovich is just being realistic. Chelsea is a big club. He wants trophies. No trohphy = no talk and out you go.
Let's say it's not Avram Grant being in charge this season. It's someone else - they would be sacked too if they didn't win any trophy. Furthermore, Abramovich invested so much in the team.
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roman very cb la
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Steve Clarke for Manager please!!!! i am scared of that barca boss.. look at his records.. its totally shit!
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spent 600m pounds still cannot buy champions league ? :D
noob...
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i still think grant did quite well
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I pity Grant. He wasn't really given a chance to prove himself. Though he got a wide array of stars to choose from, i think he should have been given more time to build his own style of play. Managing a group of stars isn't easy. i wonder who will be next to takeover the role.
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in a club where 200-300m was invested on for new players within a couple of season i don't see why the manager should be given time, worst is that Grant wasn't really that convincing in showing the club that he is capable of winning them the league as well as the ECL that Roman craves on, also his kind of play is probably the most boring if comparing to the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal & ManU so his sacking is IMHO just a forgone conclusion even before the team reach the final run that got them to level points with ManU in the league.
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Originally posted by brokenluv:
i still think grant did quite well
i think he did little except to warm the seats -
He started with players that are not on really good relations with him, yet, he was still able to overcome the odds and finish 2nd.
Certain fans might argue that " it's his assistant manager that's doing the job", he's just "stone-in" all the way, "he lets his assistant manager do the team talk", he makes "mistakes that make chelsea look like a noob team",
however, it's his first time managing a top flight team, he doesn have that much experience as SAF, he has done well.
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Originally posted by kenn3th:
He started with players that are not on really good relations with him, yet, he was still able to overcome the odds and finish 2nd.
Certain fans might argue that " it's his assistant manager that's doing the job", he's just "stone-in" all the way, "he lets his assistant manager do the team talk", he makes "mistakes that make chelsea look like a noob team",
however, it's his first time managing a top flight team, he doesn have that much experience as SAF, he has done well.
it was very much on auto pilot....the players organised themselves, wasn't terry the one who brought the team to outings and the senior players talked among themselves with regards to team play...... -
Originally posted by brokenluv:
i still think grant did quite well
of course he did well la. If terry had scored, chelsea would have won the UCL cup -
no wind no current.
that press has got infriomation somewhere and shoulld be expected of it.
manager know what should beexpected to managing chlesea. but they still queue to sign f0r it. reson? the big salary package and huge compenesation should they decide to sack him.
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actually, i'm looking at the day Abramovich gets tired of playing Championship Manager and leaves..
Chelsea will go the way of Leeds
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why feel bad? just take the money and say thank you.
there are other clubs out there looking for good managers.
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Originally posted by the Bear:
actually, i'm looking at the day Abramovich gets tired of playing Championship Manager and leaves..
Chelsea will go the way of Leeds
and if galzer did the same things so will man utd
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£5.2m payoff eases the pain for Avram Grant
A close friend of Avram Grant claimed shortly after the Israeli’s controversial appointment last September that he would be in charge of Chelsea for 15 years, such was the strength of his relationship with Roman Abramovich, but in reality he lasted little more eight months. Grant will not complain too loudly, however, certainly not to his bank manager, as with a payoff negotiated on top of his salary, his earnings over that period come to an extraordinary £8 million.
Grant’s £980,000-a-year contract as director of football was upgraded to £2.8 million last December after he had become first-team coach. Two days of negotiating with Peter Kenyon at Stamford Bridge on Friday and Saturday proved even more lucrative. Grant received a payoff of £5.2 million, which, although that is less than half of what José Mourinho was awarded, it still represents riches beyond the wildest imaginings of a man whose most high-profile job before joining Chelsea was managing Israel, where he earned £100,000.
Grant also believes that his reputation has been sufficiently enhanced for him to find alternative employment in the Barclays Premier League. The 53-year-old exceeded all expectations by taking a squad in disarray to the Champions League final and second place in the Premier League, shrewdly recognising the strength of the players and the tactics of the previous regime and letting them get on with it, while adding the odd innovation of his own.
His main strength lay in man-management, bringing the best out of players such as Michael Ballack and helping Joe Cole to produce his most consistent performances, but he also made the occasional tactical tweak. Although largely forgotten, because he was discarded towards the end of the season, the decision to deploy Shaun Wright-Phillips as a central midfield player while Michael Essien and John Obi Mikel were away at the African Cup of Nations was a master-stroke, with the 26-year-old far more effective than he often is on the wing.
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Originally posted by youyayu:
and if galzer did the same things so will man utd
yeah.. but i think MUFC is currently making profits... that's what Glazer is there for.. profits...
can't say the same about CFC.. it's Abramovich pouring money in... if he tires and goes off, CFC is dead in the water..
LFC is another club which is in trouble now with the owners squabbling...
people may look to this time and see that Arsene Wenger has sort of kept Arsenal away from all these problems with his shrewd spending and wage policies.. even if he tends to lose players to huge-spending clubs...
let's see how things pan out.. i hope i'm wrong about Abramovich..
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When you get paid millions the people also want to see results unlike Singapore Politicians this is about Football where if you're paid that much and still cant produce the goods then dont KPKB just move on.