Sometime last month I had written about how Avram Grant can impress me. He has now managed more than 10 Chelsea games and this is a nice time to review his performance and prepare his report card. I’d like to look at those specific areas that I talked about earlier, to see how he has progressed in his new league and new role. I think the pressure is more on Roman than Avram himself to prove that his appointment is a good one.

About him proving us that he is not just a muppet, he has done fairly well. He started with a negative of being so close to the owner and got this job out of near obscurity. His team selection was supposed to be yardstick for his independence. He has hardly chosen Sheva to start matches. I’m not sure if that was because he had better choices or he just wanted to drop the owner’s delight to show us who the boss is. I even thought there were matches where he could have started with Sheva but still didn’t.

How much of his recent success or sustenance of success has to do with his own coaching methods and managerial skills, is a question to be answered. I believe Ten Cate was Roman’s selection and not Avram’s. I see that we have some kind of Dutch influence in our football now due to which I feel that Ten Cate is dictating the playing style than Avram. You can’t blame me for this assumption as this was just a fair understanding of the situation.

We are yet to see if he is tactically sound. He has generally favoured 4-3-3, mostly had Drogba, Lampard, Essien and first choice wingers, complete defensive line with good replacement for Terry. His substitutions are hardly inspirational but overall, we were not negatively impacted by his subs. We allowed Leicester to get back by making an attacking sub, where we had a choice to consolidate or finish off. I’m sure he learnt his lesson there when we were 4 minutes away from losing the incredible record.

Has he proven that he has the support of the players? Tricky question this one. Players have played well enough to win 8 out of 10 matches under Avram. So, you can deduce that they support and co-operate with Avram. Not that they have an option of revolting especially when they are paid massive salaries by Roman. Barring one or two players, I’m yet to see anyone taking Avram’s name anywhere at all. On the other hand, Avram has come out strongly in support of Terry, on his salary issue, Lampard, for his form with England and Drogba, just after his outburst.

Discipline is very important in modern football but sometimes it can very be your limiting factor. The manner in which Joe Cole has opened up under Avram, is very nice to see. At the same time, will Avram have the balls to give a kick in the butt to Joey when he goes overboard? We’ll have to wait on that one. Avram needs to show that he is good with his player management. These are highly skilled, highly paid, on-demand players whose egos can be tamed by a bigger ego or someone who they very highly respect.

Has he become more stylish and savvy now? Answer is no, but he is certainly improving. On the dugout he looks more like a parent than a manager. He might have his ideas and plans, but he looks clueless as he watches on. The sight of Avram on the sidelines may not mean anything for the players on the pitch. While I appreciate his emotional intelligence, it helps if he can emote a little more and reflects his thoughts on his face and with his gestures.

He is doing rather well in the press meets nowadays. Not enough to warrant a ‘Avram Grant Quotes’ page, but he is getting bolder and bolder in front of the microphone. With an unbeaten run of 9 matches, he’s bound to be confident, I’d say more than he is now.

Not sure if Avram reads this blog, but he has certainly cut down on his Jose digs and ‘playing the right way’ claims. He must have learnt that it is not helping his popularity to make snide remarks at the most beloved Chelsea manager. Well, he wants to change Chelsea’s playing style. At best, it gets you the Man City result and at worst you’d get the Schalke result (a loss, may be). That’s his challenge. The repetitive reference to our playing style by him, was more of a display of his insecurity. He wants to be acknowledged and recognised. Anyway, I don’t think he’s going to talk about the playing style until we really achieve something.

If he is to be judged only by his results, he has done better than Rafa and Fergie. We are catching up the top two and with some luck, we could be right there at the top. In the champions league, we are just a point away from progression. His record so far in his 10 matches is 8-2-1. The loss was the one at Old Trafford and draws against Fulham and Schalke. I wouldn’t catch his neck for the defeat against Man Utd as he didn’t have too much time to make a difference and the team morale was at rockbottom. The draw against Schalke is also fine. That’s a useful away point helping our qualification for the knockout round. Probably, the only bad result under Avram was the draw against Fulham at home. Overall, he’s done a good job, if judged by the results.

We are at No.3 which is nice, when compared to the doomsday predictions early on. Honestly, with the quality of this squad, a good manager should make us the champion. Being second or third or fourth mean nothing for Roman’s expectations from a squad of this quality and price. We always talk about the failure of Real Madrid’s galacticos. What did the galacticos achieve that we call them a failure? They came runner-up twice and ended up lower once in the seasons 03-04, 04-05 and 05-06. This is what’s being referred to as failure. That tells you something about expectations at big clubs. Even at Chelsea, if Avram does not deliver the title, this season would very much be called a failure.

With a very supportive and co-operative owner who has a lot of faith in him, Avram has the luxury of getting any reinforcements he wants in January. What I’ve seen so far is very promising and that means my expectation levels would remain the same as they were in the last few seasons. Anyone for a quadruple?
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