Avram Grant

[horsechoker]

Looking back this was a strange appointment at Chelsea and one in which only served to disrupt prime Mourinho and end his first Chelsea spell on a sour note.

As the DOF, I'm not sure what direction Chelsea were actually trying to take.

However, Grant was only a slip away from winning the Champion's League. Not sure why Roman thought he would be the one to replace Mou when he had only managed in Israel prior and then his spells after Chelsea were nothing to write home about.

It seemed like the fans never warmed to him either.

So, what was the deal with Avram Grant?

 

[Red Foxx]

His press conference skills are top notch

 

[Lay]

 

[Dancfc]

I have no proof but my theory is Hen Ten Cate was in charge tactically in the training ground. It makes sense for a few reasons.

He was appointed a few weeks into the Grant era and the football we played just suddenly happened to go from lethargic and static (all be it a few games sample size) to an absolute joy to watch.

He left the Ajax managers job to be 'assistant' with us, why would a Dutchman leave the Ajax job to be an assistant here?

Grant showed just how 'good' he was at Pompey and especially West Ham when he didn't have the quality of coaches or players with him, so the idea of him masterminding us going so close to (in my opinion) Fergie's greatest ever side in the two big one's doesn't add up.

 

[Adam-Utd]

I have no proof but my theory is Hen Ten Cate was in charge tactically in the training ground. It makes sense for a few reasons.

He was appointed a few weeks into the Grant era and the football we played just suddenly happened to go from lethargic and static (all be it a few games sample size) to an absolute joy to watch.

He left the Ajax managers job to be 'assistant' with us, why would a Dutchman leave the Ajax job to be an assistant here?

Grant showed just how 'good' he was at Pompey and especially West Ham when he didn't have the quality of coaches or players with him, so the idea of him masterminding us going so close to (in my opinion) Fergie's greatest ever side in the two big one's doesn't add up.

as you say, a manager is a lot of things rolled into 1. you can be the puppet behind the scenes but a lot of the ground work is actually done by the coaching staff.

similarly to Ole here, he was good at the man management side but the training ground let us down, hence why we want a complete clear out of all the main coaches.

 

[Dancfc]

as you say, a manager is a lot of things rolled into 1. you can be the puppet behind the scenes but a lot of the ground work is actually done by the coaching staff.

similarly to Ole here, he was good at the man management side but the training ground let us down, hence why we want a complete clear out of all the main coaches.

That's what I was thinking. By all accounts Ten Cate's man management skills are absolutely non existent so that could potentially be why we kept Grant as officially manager but the Dutchman did all the tactical work.

 

[FootballHQ]

Grant did an o.k job managing Israel didn't he? I remember that incredibly tight world cup group with them, ROI, Swiss and France where they all seemed to draw and Zidane's free kick in Dublin was pretty much the difference in France making 2006 world cup. Have a look at the table:

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 4 - Wikipedia

Missed out on play offs on GD and just two points off winning the group in the end so unless I've missed another obvious example that's closest Israel come to make a major tournament in last 20 years.

After that think he was DOF at Portsmouth and Abramovich then basically appointed him to same role at Chelsea. Of course it was bizarre to see him managing Chelsea but again he did o.k in the circumstances and should've emulated Di Matteo by winning CL. Certainly had a better record than the likes of Big Phil and AVB who followed in future seasons.

Also thought he did a decent job at Pompey considering they were pretty much bankrupt at the time and got to 2010 FA cup final when Chelsea narrowly beat them. That said West Ham had a decent side in 2010/11 and they got relegated so probably shows the limits of his managerial ability.

Other than Ghana no idea who else he's managed in last decade.

 

[FootballHQ]

I have no proof but my theory is Hen Ten Cate was in charge tactically in the training ground. It makes sense for a few reasons.

He was appointed a few weeks into the Grant era and the football we played just suddenly happened to go from lethargic and static (all be it a few games sample size) to an absolute joy to watch.

He left the Ajax managers job to be 'assistant' with us, why would a Dutchman leave the Ajax job to be an assistant here?

Grant showed just how 'good' he was at Pompey and especially West Ham when he didn't have the quality of coaches or players with him, so the idea of him masterminding us going so close to (in my opinion) Fergie's greatest ever side in the two big one's doesn't add up.

Wasn't it said the players were just managing themselves during that period (although less so with some of the managers you appointed in future seasons!) It was pretty much the same as when Di Matteo came in.

Always remember one cup game you had which went to extra time and Grant was just standing around on the pitch while John Terry was giving a massive team talk to everyone. That said IIRC Frank Lampard spoke warmly of him as think his Mum passed away during that season so probably shows he was a decent bloke at least behind the dour media presence so players at least were motivated to continue to play well post Mourinho.

Pompey were always going to get relegated when he came in 2009/10, they'd lost 8 of their first 9 games or something so needs a pass there. Yeah can't argue with West Ham going down with likes of Rob Green, Upson, Scott Parker, Demba Ba and Robbie Keane, that was certainly poor management.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

/thread.

 

[cj_sparky]

Wasn't there a cafe bumble bee version of this?

Edit...yep

 

[Siorac]

Hard to judge his quality but it has to be said that that Chelsea side came really close to a Double. They finished two points behind one of our greatest sides ever and they more than matched us in the Moscow final. You could say they were still on autopilot from Mourinho or you can attribute it to Ten Cate but that was actually a decent season from Chelsea.

 

[Dancfc]

Wasn't it said the players were just managing themselves during that period (although less so with some of the managers you appointed in future seasons!) It was pretty much the same as when Di Matteo came in.

Always remember one cup game you had which went to extra time and Grant was just standing around on the pitch while John Terry was giving a massive team talk to everyone. That said IIRC Frank Lampard spoke warmly of him as think his Mum passed away during that season so probably shows he was a decent bloke at least behind the dour media presence so players at least were motivated to continue to play well post Mourinho.

Pompey were always going to get relegated when he came in 2009/10, they'd lost 8 of their first 9 games or something so needs a pass there. Yeah can't argue with West Ham going down with likes of Rob Green, Upson, Scott Parker, Demba Ba and Robbie Keane, that was certainly poor management.

Yeah the man management aspect of Avram (again an educated theory) is why he was manager instead of Ten Cate.

I don't really think players can really manage themselves tbh, even in 2012 or required some tweaks from Robbie like having Ramires/Bertrand chasing down full backs. The thing with 2012 is we were actually a bang average team, the UCL win was the true gift from above.

 

[CallyRed]

Former Chelsea and West Ham manager Avram Grant, 66, 'held his exposed penis over a sleeping woman, stripped naked in front of an Israeli model and pestered others for sex', claims a TV documentary in Israel

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/s...ual-harassment-multiple-women-Israeli-TV.html


Some pretty disturbing accusations

 

[Bastian]

Yikes. That reads absolutely Weinstein-esque. Eugh.

 

[calodo2003]

Creepy

 

[shazzmufc]

Wow. He had a spell managing the Ghana national team at some point as well. Was wondering why this thread got bumped and didn’t expect that at all. Very creepy.

 

[Raoul]

Former Chelsea and West Ham manager Avram Grant, 66, 'held his exposed penis over a sleeping woman, stripped naked in front of an Israeli model and pestered others for sex', claims a TV documentary in Israel

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/s...ual-harassment-multiple-women-Israeli-TV.html


Some pretty disturbing accusations

This sounds like a very controversial topic, which I obviously have no opinion about for fear of potentially influencing a hypothetical future case in Israel. Israeli laws are quite strong and masculine. But I am aware that an article has been published about a man. That's all i can say on the matter.

 

[UweBein]

OMFG. Football, money, power, abusive behaviour.

 

[Red_Aaron]

I thought it was well known he was a bit of a pervert

Wasn't be caught curb crawling whilst Portsmouth boss - think he was wearing his club tracksuit at the time.

 

[CallyRed]

Wow. He had a spell managing the Ghana national team at some point as well. Was wondering why this thread got bumped and didn’t expect that at all. Very creepy.

You probably expected him being announced as the new Watford manager

 

[Rocksy]

I would never, ever have had Avram Grant down as a dirty old man. Never!

 

[Solius]

What a scummy cnut.

 

[Cloud7]

Wow that’s disgusting. I thought this bump was going to be something football related. I was just about to reminisce on how he was one PK away from being a champions league winning manager.

You probably expected him being announced as the new Watford manager

 

[shazzmufc]

You probably expected him being announced as the new Watford manager