Career Advice For Avram Grant
One of my first articles for this site was giving career advice to Steve McLaren. Someone must of read it because McLaren did just want I suggested in getting out of England to coach in Holland. Now that my massive ego has been boosted I figured Avram Grant can now use some of my advice.
Grant biggest hurdle at Chelsea was that he was never going to remove Jose Mourinho from the hearts and minds of Chelsea fans. Avram Grant played the Richard Nixon role at Chelsea to Mourinho’s charismatic John F Kennedy. Nothing that Grant could ever do at Chelsea would truly win over the fans like the special one was able to do. Even if Grant was able to win the Champions League the next day you know Mourinho was going to hold a press conference saying he only won it with his players and that if he was left alone the result would of been the same. A John Terry slip and penalty miss later there was no need for that Mourinho press conference as Grant finds himself out of a job.
Avram Grant career progression is unique. He skipped a few steps along the way in getting the Chelsea job. Grant went from coaching Israel to being part or the back room staff at Portsmouth and Chelsea then inserted into the top job in one of the biggest clubs in the world. That will affect him when coaching vacancies open up. Despite an impressive season at Chelsea the previous track record isn’t there which will scare some top teams off hiring Grant.
Don’t worry, I have the course of action you should take. You always seemed stressed at Chelsea, can I call you Avram now? Doesn’t matter I’m going to anyway. Ok, Avram back to you being stressed. It’s like you knew that every dropped point was going to result in the media starting up the rumors of your impending demise. Well we know how that ended up.
Enjoy your life Avram and forget about Football for a year. Take a cruise, get some sun just do something and enjoy a year away from the game. Sure you didn’t win anything but you have every reason to be proud of your coaching reign at Chelsea. You pushed Manchester United until the final day of the season in the EPL and lost on what really amounts to a coin flip in the Champions League final. Add to that you handled yourself with class on the way out. The way you supported John Terry after his miss was something to be respected. Here you are hugging Terry and praising him in the post match press conference knowing that his miss cost you the Chelsea job. John Terry will still be pulling down 300k a week at Chelsea next season and you are jobless. Sometimes life just isn’t fair.
The best thing that can happen to you is if Luiz Felipe Scolari doesn’t succeed at Chelsea. Your record at Chelsea will look pretty good if Scolari isn’t able to match what you were able to do last year. Never mind that Scolari got the full summer transfer window to play with in order to mold his team something that you weren’t able to take advantage of. Having Chelsea stumble will be the best thing that could happen to you. Revisionist history will now look kindly about you and your time at Chelsea. That will lead to the offers flying in come next year when the coaching carousel starts up again.
So in closing enjoy your year on the sidelines Avram and see you this time next year hopefully coaching a club that will give you a fair shake.