Avram Grant
Truthfully I had no idea what I was going to title this post so boring Avram Grant it is.
Two years ago around this time I remember hating Avram Grant. He after all took over for Jose Mourinho at Chelsea and around this very time had them within inches of first place in the league and marching to the finals of the Champions League. To be fair anyone who replaced Mourinho mid season especially after it seemed like he was pushed out I was going to hate.
Then came the Champions League finals and just remember that afternoon thinking how badly I wanted Manchester United. Not because I’m a fan of United but due to the Ronaldo factor and how I didn’t want to deal with living in a world where Avram Grant won the Champions League title that Mourinho was suppose to win.
Everything then changed soon after John Terry slipped and Manchester United went on to win the Champions League. Here you had Avram Grant who knew he couldn’t win over the press in comparison to Mourinho. After every dropped point Grant had to deal with questions about the safety of his job. He also must of known that come the end of the season anything less than the Champions League would get him replaced. Yet after John Terry slipped and hit the post there was Grant to support Terry after the game. Avram Grant had nothing but praise for Terry aftwards, Terry is on 125k a week and Grant was about to be shown the door. Even knowing that he kept his head up and handled everything about as classy as one could considering he was in a no win situation.
It took 18 months for Avram Grant to get another kick at the can, this time with troubled Portsmouth. It amazes me how loyal he has been to the club considering all the false promises he has had to deal with. No one could of blamed him if he walked away at any point in the season. Yet here he is against all odds who is taking the scraps of what is left over from the Harry Redknapp era and taking them to the FA Cup final against none other than Chelsea.
I truely hope this has a story book ending, you can tell those players respect and play hard for Grant each and every game. It would be a great story if Grant got a measure of revenge against the team who dropped him and took Portsmouth to the FA Cup title. He already got one over on former Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp in the semi finals, Here’s hoping there is one more trick up Grant’s sleeve.