The Chelsea top brass is never too impressed with the limelight that the club gets, as it’s mostly for wrong reasons. JM in his time at Chelsea made a lot of noise – some good and some bad. After JM left, Chelsea has not been in the news very much for a few months. And now, we’re back. It’s hard to find a news magazine today without some spicy Chelsea story!
I’ll discuss some of the most interesting stories making rounds on the web. I don’t know how much truth is there in these. In the absence of evidence, you be the judge for yourself.
John Terry vs Ten Cate – The Telegraph
The news is that they had a nasty bust up before the start of the final. It was so sick that players had to intervene and guess what, Roman was there then and had the privilege of watching his captain quarrel with the assistant coach. Of course Chelsea FC has denied this by saying “all our focus is on the next game”. They could have rather said “yes, they came to blows and had each other bleed”.
Update : Ten Cate has admitted that there was an F-word argument with John Terry. Reportedly, Roman was unhappy and has launched an inquiry into this episode.
Grant’s preparation for the finals – The Independent
Grant had his own methods of building up to the final. Announcing the playing eleven a couple of hours before the kick off was one. It’s not that he had not made up his mind. He says that he had the playing eleven in his mind on Friday itself. This last minute thing did cause some amount of trouble including the furore over possible axing of Terry and Lampard.
Avram’s choking at big matches – TimesOnline
Grant must hate these English journalists. The same guys who were writing “who needs the special one?” while he was busy scoring 1-0 wins over not-so-bigger oppositions, are now behind his back. Chelsea under Avram has been less than impressive in crucial matches. It appears, back in Israel, Avram won only 1 of his 4 finals.
Big-game manager? – ESPN Soccernet
Here the author talks why Avram is not a big game manager and worse, the in-fighting in Chelsea which could turn out to be disastrous soon. Who’s going to the press next? Anelka? Essien? Cech?
Ballack was not explained – Sky Sports
By form Ballack should have started for the final. When he was to dropped, at least that should have been conveyed to him in a proper manner. He is quite a senior player and would expect respect in communication instead of him having to look for the teamsheet to see if his name is there.
Av you lost the plot, Grant? – The Sun
The Sun analyses what went wrong with the Chelsea’s preparations for the final. The article ends with these words – “It is not the players’ ability to win trophies which is being questioned, however. It is Avram Grant’s. And it is a question now being asked by his own players”
Jose wouldn’t have blown it! – Daily Mail
Yet another analysis. Daily Mail says JM would not have allowed this trophy to slip through. As someone said, this was a match where Chelsea could not hold on to a lead while Tottenham did.
The Avram Grant Debate – SkySports
Sky Sports ran this debate on Avram Grant where the question was ‘Is Grant the man to regain the title for Chelsea, or is he out of his depth?‘. If not anything, Grant’s claim of beautiful football is buried ten feet under the ground.
Finally, the overall picture that I get from all these newspapers is that: (i) No one still believes Grant is of Chelsea FC quality (ii) He has no respect from the dressing room (iii) There are some serious man management issues in Chelsea FC squad.
I know that the journalists love to write such doomsday predictions but I need to get a reassurance very soon to feel more comfortable.
26 Responses - Add your comment!
Reassurance? Grant’s decision making, tactics, and command of the team is an atrocity. Granted, there was Valencia and Man City. But, other than those victories, Chelsea has simply not been a pleasure to watch. Allowing Villa to score 4 goals, a draw to Anfield at the Bridge, and now this? Reassurance seems at best unlikely if not impossible.
We can only pray that Grant has learned his lessons from this unmentionable occurence and make better decisions. A solid win against the Hammers would be a good start. In the mean time, is it true that Rikyarrd will be availiable at the end of the season? How about Hiddink? Heck, maybe Clarke should be given the chance with Zola as an assistant?
who gives a hoot what the press thinks about grant because the board of directors dont see anything wrong with this fake ass coach and he seems to have the support of those that really matters,those that foot the bills of everybody at the club…no matter how much we call for this guys head,nothing would happen to him as long as the power that be is still with him..
i hope he losses and losses big so that he can be sacked soon…i dont care if my team gets relegated…if thats what it would take for them to sack him then so be it
good news
http://tribalfootball.com/article.php?id=80605
My buddy just emailed me. I thought this would happen much before, probably immediaely after his appointment! Now here is an online petition to sack Grant! Sign in if you want Grant to be replaced with a world class coach!!! Who is referred as a world class coach that I don’t know. May be, Rijkaard and the like, I guess!
Sad to know the world is just seeing for the first time what many of us saw on the first day. Mourinho might have been stupid but he was not a fool, he made mistakes but never was there a dearth of discipline in the squad. Tell me, would Terry have approached the issue that same way if it was JM that hid the team list? I tell you something; all opposition coaches breathed a sigh of relief when JM was axed, why? Cos they know that a team like Chelsea needed trophies to attract respect, fear and caution from others and that was exactly what JM was doing. I bet any one who dares to doubt me we are not goung to win anything this season!
Bluchampion you need to put your concerns on the CFC website or start a petition for removal of AV so that we can bring in the quality that we need as a coach. It is all too clear that AV is getting beaten by better managers than better teams.
Avram Grant should be sacked. There is no repudiating that fact. This has been our worst season since 2002. We need a tactically sound and intelligent manager at chelsea and not someone who’s learning the act. Tell me, how many clubs can hire avram Grant as manager?
It’s already obvious that we cannot win anything this season. Let’s get another manager and start planning for next season before it’s too late.
Avram Grant cannot win the cocacola championship with barcelona if he keeps using the tactics he uses with us…… that’s the truth
BluREHMAN BC has already given the link above. I’ve just signed the petition. good job BC.
Kick out ten Cate. He has had a terrible effect on our team and hardly any players like to train and play under him. Before he lft Ajax, the crowd booed him and he would have been sacked and jobless if Roman didn’t come calling…Why do you need another assistant manager if you have Steve Clarke?
sack cate and avram we need top managers. who ever talks shit with terry needs to be sacked. haha. ive notice israeli isnt writing stuff on this blog any more. not any thing good to say about avram.?
Grant is stastisticly a better manager than Jose and he hasn’t got any of his own players at Chelsea… all the players in that squad were chosen by Mourinho not by Grant and he has still managed to do a better job. Give the guy a break, we all know Spurs are big club under-achieving and they won the Carling Cup because they wanted it more and needed it more. We are Chelsea… do we need it? We’re still in the title race, Champions League and FA cup lets just get behind him and see what this season brings us!
He’s not been in charge long enough to make any comment. Chelsea need to have a youth team policy like two of the main competition or to buy players at a young age. The problem with them is the owner pouring in vast sums of money on players past their best. Drogba, Lampard and Cole are the best players they have bought. Too much money in the short term. Look at Arsenal who have rebuilt over the last three years and Sir Alex Ferguson who is alway’s rebuilding with players young enough to last for years. Give him another two years before you can judge if he is good enough.
much as Jose would have. I believe that even if Joe Cole was the wide left player on Sunday Spurs would’ve still come out on top as they clearly wanted it a lot more. It would be a huge mistake to get rid of Grant this early. Look at Newcastle with Allardyce. Everton and, although I hate to say it, Man United, kept their managers when they seemed to be failing and now look at them!
but to see so many Chelsea fans turn so quickly on a man who’s lost three games in 30 odd matches! It’s still early days. Yes Joe Cole should have started instead of Anelka but it is a learning curve that Grant won’t repeat. Remember we’re still in two cup competitions where he can get it right. We’ve been spoiled over the last three seasons, and its time the players showed what they can do in these important matches. But that’s by-the-by, Grant has done much better than anyone would’ve imagined and the fact we got to the final, and are still in three other competitions speaks volumes. PLUS, Spurs have been a revelation since Woodgate joined and Ramos is one of the best managers out there – apart from when he subbed Robbie Keane off. It could easily have gone sour for them but he got away with it
Its too early to say whether Grant will be a success, the team is still the same apart from Anelka. The team are a little unlucky to lose to a’Woodgate ” header!!!!!! Lets afce it its either Utd or Arsenal for the league and pool will win what they did last year.nothing
Bring back Joseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
bring in rijkard or dechamps
the problem with grant is he makes stpid substitutions and it looks like the team is playing for him, under jose it was exactly the opposite. I have a feeling about rijkaard
when capello was sacked when he won real the league when everyone thought barca would win……….then why cant we sack this jelly bean who i believe is a not going to win us anything with this attitude of his (i am still optimistic abt the UCL and FA cup)
I’m happy to see Rikard’s name in the replacement of AVRAAM…Thank GOd, please sign the peition we might just break the bank for the Barca captain…
Yes Arsenal and ManU kept their faith in their managers because they knew they were very decent and good managers,with proven records elsewhere, thats all, not like this backstabbing “monkfish” we have.
The man now wnats to bring his “own” players LOL LOL.
who are they: Kaka?,Ronaldinho?, Villa? Quaresma?Benzema? etc etc, all already world class players, not like JM that made of his buys and the ones that were in Chelsea world class.
This guy would struggle in the conference league.
April 12th, 2008: If Grant and ten Cate can keep Chelsea in the hunt for the treble, leave the bums where they are until the end of the season. True, they don’t know what they are doing. But, it is too late to get Rikjaard or anyone else with credintials. If they blow the chance at two more trophies like they blew the Spurs game, send them to Kyrzstan to manage their domestic second division (and take that overpaid, often injured, needs time to adjust to the English game Ukrainian has been with them). I don’t even want to see them in America. Steve Clarke can be a solid caretaker until a new manager is chosen.
Whoever becomes the new manager, Roman must swear to leave him the heck alone and let him do his job! No one will come to the Bridge when the owner wants to be the manager too. Had he left Jose alone, we would be “bored to tears” watching Chelsea hoist up another Carling Cup. Boring or Beautiful, no good manager wins anything with an owner that will not stay in his place.
Which world class footballer would come and play for chelsea, with a management team, that only your owner knows?
No world class player would accept Avram Grant as a manager, unless your owner will give a salary that could not be refused.
Your manager is simpoly a pathetic coach, how many topo clubs went for him, before Chelsea??? thats right NONE.
Guys,
I for one think that Roman was sort of a rescuer of Jose by sacking him. Because Jose was on a downhill but the early sacking of him made most people to believe that that was only a temporary slip, but for me it was not. We started to fail to beat opponents like Reading without changing players and formation in half-times. We couldn’t beat Liverpool in the league anymore, we struggled against good oppositions like Aston Villa, we couldn’t beat Rosenborg. If Jose stayed in charge we would see that he cannot win the league again, he cannot win the Champions League, maybe he would win Carling Cup and/or FA. By his early departure we were not given the chance to see that and now everybody remembers Jose as a guy who always won tropheys, especially now when we have a clown as our manager.
Mourofessien, Man Utd too last year were in contention with three major tropheys till the end of the season, they just do not rate Carling Cup and that’s the reason why they get eliminated early from that cup every year. Good managers can chase all tropheys at the same time till the end of a season with a good squad, Jose is not unique in that achievement. As for the injuries, every team has them, you just have to think of them before the season starts and take your precautions against them. Jose didn’t take his precautions, so he failed in the end. Look at Arsenal now, they lost 2 of the finest strikers of EPL because of injuries – Van Persie and Eduardo – everyone has injuries – no excuses please.
To conclude, you have a right to like Jose and I have a righ not to.
Bring Rijkaard please.
good said midfielder
thanx SuperBlue