He took them to within a hair’s breath of winning the Champions League for the club, as John Terry’s balance proved the difference between success and failure. Yet since being fired by close friend Roman Abramovich following that defeat, Grant has slipped to the bottom of the Premier League, spending last year rooted to the foot of the table with Portsmouth, where he has now spent most of his time with West Ham.
To put it crudely, is the Israeli any good as a manager or not? It’s a question that has baffled many. When he was appointed as manager of Chelsea in the aftermath of the sacking of Jose Mourinho, a senior international at the club remarked:
‘Chelsea deserve a bigger coach than him. Grant does not have the quality to coach a team like this. When we play big opponents we will suffer because of him.’
With Chelsea chasing the Premier League and Champions League in April that season, they came from behind to beat both Arsenal and Manchester United, their two title rivals, and almost won the Premier League. They beat Liverpool in the Champions League, something Mourinho had always failed to do, finally moving the club past the semi-final stage and into the final, in which Chelsea came agonisingly close to victory.
Grant’s record prior to taking over at Chelsea was limited to his experiences in Israel, primarily with the national team. However, his record with Israel was extremely impressive, having come close to taking the country to the 2006 World Cup from a group involving France, Ireland and Switzerland. Israel came through the group undefeated and only missed out to Switzerland on goals scored. Coming that close to taking a country the size of Wales to the World Cup should not be ignored.
With Portsmouth though, events were somewhat out of his control, but simultaneously he managed to take the club to the FA Cup final with an impressive run. At West Ham, he has taken the side both to the bottom of the league and to the brink of the Carling Cup final. But his side is playing decent football.
At Chelsea, the main accusation against Grant was that he wasn’t in control of the club, but that it was the players. Supposedly they were the ones who took charge and guided the club to the brink of glory, á la Zinedine Zidane with the French side in the 2006 World Cup. But if the players were so influential, why did they not repeat these heroics under Luiz Felipe Scolari the following season? Grant was a universally unpopular choice with a win ratio that is at the time of writing superior to that of Carlo Ancelotti. Yet this success is down the players taking control. Luiz Felipe Scolari, a universally popular choice to succeed the Israeli, failed spectacularly whose record was far inferior to Grant’s. You’d have thought if the players were taking charge under Grant that they’d have done the same under Scolari, just months later.
At Portsmouth and West Ham, Grant’s record has been mixed, and certain figures in the press have suggested that he has got by in the media by feeding them stories and playing the political game of the press. Again, it is a charge that does not add up. If Grant is playing the press so well, then why have the media used every opportunity to slate him and discredit his team’s achievements, passing on the credit to others – be it John Terry or now Wally Downes?
Some have suggested that Grant is a lucky manager, including those in Israel when he almost took them to the World Cup. His success, they argue, is down to this luck. This is where we can dismiss the arguments of Grant’s detractors entirely. Last season his Portsmouth side missed a penalty at 0-0 against Chelsea in the FA Cup final. Had that gone in, they could have achieved one of the most remarkable FA Cup wins of all time. What kind of luck is that? What kind of lucky manager loses a European Cup final because his captain’s penalty was an inch too far to the right? What kind of lucky manager misses out on taking a tiny country the size of Wales to the World Cup against the likes of France due to an inferior goals scored tally?
The truth seems to be that the English press judged Grant the moment Jose Mourinho was sacked by Roman Abramovich at Chelsea. In an attempt to justify their innacurate and presumptuous assessment of the Israeli, the press have been labelling all of his achievements since as the work of others. In doing so, they are discrediting one of the best managers in the English game.
