Avram Grant To Jose Mourinho: My Chelsea Were Better
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Avram Grant To Jose Mourinho: My Chelsea Were Better
The man who replaced The Special One reckons his Blues were at least as good as his predecessor's...
Jose Mourinho recently said that man who succeeded him as Chelsea manager, Avram Grant, did "nothing" for the club during his seven-month stint at the helm. The Israeli led the Blues to their first-ever Champions League final, where they lost to Manchester United on penalties, but Mourinho claimed he would have gone one better had he stayed at Stamford Bridge.
Grant is confused by the Inter Milan coach's unprovoked criticism and has defended his efforts in resurrecting a Blues side that were in turmoil when he took over.
He told the News of the World, “What the fans need to remember is that Jose did not leave me a team that were champions, that was Manchester United and we were in sixth position after a very poor start to the season.
“Everyone was in shock. The atmosphere in the dressing room was not good, critics were saying the football was boring and negative and we had just had a poor draw with Rosenborg in the Champions League.
“The supporters were booing the team after that match, the stadium was half empty and Jose knew his time was up. “He then walked out a couple of days before an away match with United when Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Ricardo Carvalho were all out injured and I agreed to step in.
“I was director of football and was enjoying my job. Jose agreed I should come and we worked for three months together. He did his job and I tried to help him. I felt it was a very important role. But things were not good. Morale was low and questions were being asked.
“With a lot of effort — and a lot of thinking and hard work — I started putting the team back together again.”
What's Stopping Mou?
Grant then launched a stinging counter-attack at Mourinho, insisting the Portuguese had plenty of chances to lead Chelsea to European glory. “I don’t see how Jose can claim he would have won the Champions League if he’d still been in charge,” the 53-year-old continued.
“He was boss for more than three years and he didn’t even make the Champions League final once. What stopped him? He had the biggest budget in the history of football, some of the best players and an owner that gave him everything.
“But he got beaten twice in the semi-finals by teams with half the budget he had at his disposal. “What he forgets is that we beat Liverpool with a team that had (Fernando) Torres in and only missed winning the biggest prize in football by inches — and that penalty shoot-out miss did not make us a bad side.”
One Of The Best
Nicolas Anelka's flubbed spot-kick doomed Chelsea to trophyless season and signalled the end of Grant's whirlwind spell in the Stamford Bridge hot-seat. But people often forget that the Pensioners came agonisingly close to claiming a double last term, as they battled Man United right to the wire for the Premier League title - a remarkable achievement after the start they endured.
And Grant said, “Jose says that I did ‘nothing’ in the League. Perhaps his memory is failing him because my winning ratio of games was second to none. We won all the big games at home when I was in charge, beating Arsenal, United and Liverpool.
“I am told one of the best in their history. We won all the big games at home when I was in charge. “If we hadn’t started the season so badly under Jose, we would have been champions — it’s a fact — but the dropped points cost us dearly at the end. We paid the price for a poor start under his guidance.”
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AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Finally someone hits back at Jose
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lol he say it now
after premier league end
we see who has the last laugh
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This two fellas should be shooting scolari now what.
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If Grant had won CL, then probably he can mock at Jose.
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but too bad, terry blew it for him
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Grant my ass... you're lucky to have players left behind by him.. if you're good enough go manage a ECL pretenter and make them champion then come talk big.. much as i disliked Jose's off field thingy, i think he did a great job winning back to back titles with Chelsea.. money had no doubt made life easier for him but his motivation medthod and his way of handling his players is pretty what makes him who he is..Grant?? he is probably better off squaring against Undertaker..
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the only sure thing at this juncture is scolari cmi.
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Originally posted by Saltiga:
Grant my ass... you're lucky to have players left behind by him.. if you're good enough go manage a ECL pretenter and make them champion then come talk big.. much as i disliked Jose's off field thingy, i think he did a great job winning back to back titles with Chelsea.. money had no doubt made life easier for him but his motivation medthod and his way of handling his players is pretty what makes him who he is..Grant?? he is probably better off squaring against Undertaker..
you made some sense here =)
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grant was a great position...little was expected of him really...the main frame of the team was his predecessor's...all he did was to be more lovable than mourinho, to roman and his boot lickers at least.....he got through on auto pilot, doing little else...the team was basically ran by terry and a few of them...scolari is pretty much a disorganised person...be it whether one likes mourinho...you've got to give him credit for his management....detailed and organised....
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yar his better at losing finals..
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jose and grant. it's hard to say.
afterall both did well.
grant vs scolari.
surely grant.
thrashing somemore. -
Many mourinho lovers can't seem not to used this term too easily... "The team was on auto-pilot" during Grant's tenure...
Wow amazing, this few words alone simply take away all of Grant's good work while he was in charge...
Now first of all, over the months I have already come across a few of this mourinho supporters who strangely actually believed that a team can really run on "auto-pilot" for 8 months! This is really shocking!
If there was ever such a thing as an "auto-pilot" team then Scolari has clearly prove that it don't exist... Cos same club, same players, same league, same competition... But what a huge difference one man make in just 5 months (Mid-Aug to Mid Jan)...
I just can't belief why some would rather live in denial rather than see the clear picture infront of them... Grant was totally right when he said Mourinho had more than 3 yrs and the kind of financial backing not seen before in football and yet he still couldn't win them the CL let alone get them into the final...
And if one can recall Mourinho was sack cos his team only got 1 point from their CL game and it came against the weakest side in the group Rosenborg at the Bridge... They were in danger of not even qualifying for the 2nd round last season until Grant took over and got them all the way to the final... And honestly, had mourinho not had such a poor start to the league last season, maybe Grant would have won last season's title...
So, to those who dislike Grant that much and try to convince themselves and others that his team was on auto-pilot throughout the season... Perhaps they like to tell everyone who select to players for each match, choose the formation, type of tactics employ? Auto-decide ?
All I am saying is, as much as some mourinho supporters dislike Grant, they should still give him the credit that he deserve. Cos he really took United all the way not just in the CL, but in the league as well and had Terry not missed that penalty, his Chelsea history would even surpass that of Jose's...
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Originally posted by stellazio:
yar his better at losing finals..
Maybe its because he had Ballack (A mourinho signing) in his squad?This guy alone has lose more finals in one season than the number of league games Chelsea lost in the whole of last season... amazing... lol
UEFA European Football Championship (Germany)
Carling Cup
Charity Shield
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ya.. a page from Grant's lover.. with as much facts as Rafa's rants at SAF.. (everything seems true but only from his view from within the well) you can take it that Grant did a great job if you're so madly in love with him but why why claimed others love Jose blindly too?? its all opinions and everyone is entitled to it.. why claim others is blind love while yours is the true trail?? give me a break!!! anyway without checking thru all the media, www., wiki and so on.. as you've always had to relied on, tell me where is he now and how is his team doing?? i didn't intent to do this but since you keep saying Jose supporters are in blind love with him i'll probably believe that if he as good as you've claimed we should see him holding the ECL cup in say 3 years time?? (and to save you the haste of running thru your wiki, Jose took Porto to ECL title within 3 years of joining them, as for those inbetween cups, lets just say forget about them, just see if Grant will be able to take whoever he managed to ECL title will do)