The Chelsea blood-thirsty media have been more than peeved since Abramovich appointed Mourinho and when the threat to the cosy old guard of clubs was confirmed as the Portuguese’s first season got under way. 

January 2007, was a prime opportunity for the press to give our manager what can only be described as a good kick-ing.  Chelsea were struggling with an extraordinary run of injuries - yet no players came in.  Abramovich was away to sort his divorce out and meet with Putin, Kenyon wouldn´t  budge on paying what he considered over the odds for at least 3 players we bid for and Mourinho…..well Mourinho could only ring his hands in frustration as our bid to claim a 3^rd consecutive title was being seriously undermined.  The press loved it!  Soon came the icing on the cake for them when it was rumoured that Grant was being lined up to come to the Bridge and virtually become Mourinho´s new boss!  Not only that, Mourinho´s right-hand man, Steve Clarke, was to booted out onto the Fulham Road to make a bit of space. 

Certainly some of the content of that press campaign was complete big hairy dangly things, but many Chelsea fans would admit that the name “Avram Grant” hung ominously like a dark spectre over those of us that are adamant that Mourinho must stay at Chelsea for many years to come. A lot of us want him to continue into old age, until in need of a walking stick and just capable of forming speech - then and only then would we reluctantly admit that it’s time for the “Special One” to go home to Portugal, stick some sardines on the BBQ and manage the national team while he’s at it if he likes.

Well, Grant IS now at Chelsea in the position of “Technical Director.”  He’s reportedly on a 2 year contract with a salary of around £800,000 and not only that, he has a seat on the board!

So what’s going on then?  Who exactly is Grant? What’s he going to do?  How’s this going to affect Chelsea?  What about Mourinho?  Do us Mourinho worshippers have reason to be extremely concerned or is it a case of "It´s Not The Nine O´clock News" inspired making peace with the devil with a “Come in me old mate and have a cup of tea!” 

SO WHAT´S ROMAN UP TO APPOINTING THIS BLOKE? 

3 years ago, Mourinho said that he found Abramovich “remarkably well informed” and it should be obvious to all of us that he conducted extensive research on world football before buying Chelsea. 

The English football management model has been slowly dying out – gone are the days when the manager did almost everything – from negotiating transfers, administration, coaching and picking the team.  Power has become more decentralised in recent decades and a gradual shift towards the continental model of football management is being taken up by more and more clubs – Portsmouth and Arsenal are 2 examples and Chelsea appear to be going almost the whole hog.

It’s clear that Abramovich sees this as the way forward – an expert in each specific field in their own “department” with no “Jack of all trades” spreading himself too thinly.  Without any doubt Abramovich and his advisors have not just looked at football in England but on the Continent as well and see the continental way as being the more effective despite involving more chiefs to control the Indians. 

The selection of Grant has been the conclusion of a coincindental process.  Our old friend Pini Zahavi (he gets everywhere that bloke doesn’t he!) first introduced Grant (who speaks Russian by the way) to Abramovich.  Roman was later present at Israel's first qualifier for the 2006 World Cup against France and was often seen visiting the dressing room after their matches. Abramovich became impressed by Grant´s knowledge and a relationship developed between the two even to the extent that Abramovich often asked Grant about promising Israeli players he could use at Chelsea.

The situation developed further with a certain Alexandre Gaydamak.  His father (the bloke with the money!) had done business with Abramovich in the past and the story goes that Roman himself persuaded him, in some part, to buy a football club. 

Well, Alexandre Gaydamak did buy a football club (or about half of it at first) when he bought into Portsmouth and the story concludes with the rumour that Gaydamak did Abramovich a favour for encouraging him to get involved in the beautiful game by “parking” Grant there before a timed move to Chelsea.  

WHO IS AVRAM GRANT THEN?

Well, he never played professionally although he did start out as youth coach at Hapoel Petach Tikva where he was soon elevated to the role of senior coach. Then he moved to Maccabi Tel Aviv, guiding them to a first league title in 13 years.  Later he moved to Maccabi Haifa who are described as the “powerhouse of Israeli football” where he won two league titles, and then ultimately managing the national team through their 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign.  Israel narrowly missed out on qualifying although they did remain unbeaten in a group comprising of Republic of Ireland, France and Switzerland.

More recently Grant was brought in by Gaydamak to Portsmouth as technical director where he was quite low profile and unobtrusive.  Redknapp had nothing but praise for the Israeli’s approach despite being apparently initially worried that Grant would undermine his own position.  Redknapp said that Grant provided a link between the board and the coaching staff on training and the running of the club, he was found to be a positive influence who did not interfere.

"I've found him to be very knowledgeable, an absolute gentleman and a nice person to have at the club - he has got a good knowledge of the game and of foreign players." 

“Avram has been as good as gold. I enjoy having him here, talking to him and being with him. He has a lot of experience and common sense. If Chelsea want him, it would be unfair to stand in his way."

"I wish Avram all the best and I will miss him a lot. He was great for me at Portsmouth."

Ex-pompey player, David Thompson said:

"He observes a lot, he chats to the players and gives a small input. He is quite philosophical and has a lot of comparisons in life - I found him to be quite an interesting guy. He's like Socrates, but not the Brazilian footballer."  (!!!)

He has been described as a charismatic and gifted coach with excellent man-management skills and appears to adopt a clever “softly softly” approach over solving problems.  He knows how to handle the media (although he rarely gave interviews while at Portsmouth).  Others have said that he has been lucky, is in fact a mediocre coach, should have done better whilst national coach of Israel and will be “found out sooner or later.”  One Israeli football journalist said "Avram is not the kind of person to sit back and earn the money.”

Before coming to Chelsea, some reports say he turned down the Man City job.    

WHAT WILL HE DO EXACTLY?

The official statement from Chelsea read:

"Grant will be responsible for liaison on, and co-ordination of, football matters across the various areas of Chelsea. He will also sit on the football club board and report to chief executive Peter Kenyon."

"His experience and knowledge will play an important role in the formulation of overall football policy with Kenyon, Mourinho and Arnesen."

Grant himself said:

"I will be responsible for all the professional matters in Chelsea and a coordinator in all football matters. I am happy. This is a dream come true for me. I have a lot of work to do and I will do everything to help the many causes that Chelsea have."

So, it seems that his primary role is to act as a link man between the clubs footballing departments including the first team run by Mourinho and the youth set-up overseen by Arnesen. 

One apparent "club source" described Grants role as a “conduit” between areas within the club with NO involvement with the first team.

According to Redknapp he has a lot of knowledge about players both domestically and in Europe so no doubt he may be involved in recruitment (some say he already has been - recommending the Ben Tal Haim signing but this seems to be based upon the fact that both come from Israel and another media stick to beat Mourinho with). 

Whilst probably becoming quite involved with Arnesen in his department I’d imagine that as far as senior players are concerned his input to Mourinho will only be to recommend and bounce ideas off on potential signings.

Grant was in the club's party when they left on Monday for the United States pre-season tour of California so he’s wasting no time in getting to know everybody.  

HOW WILL GRANT´S APPOINTMENT AFFECT CHELSEA? 

Chelsea have no plans to introduce Grant to the media in a press conference. Whether this decision is so as not to cause too much distraction to the tour party by keeping the baying media masses off with their questions looking for another “sensational” anti-Mourinho angle (although they have already started  after José´s first interview in California), or, it’s that Grant prefers to stick to his “softly softly” approach and to start to get on quietly with the job in hand without unnecessary razzmatazz, I do not know – I suspect it’s the latter and if so I like his style.

Suggestions that Grant’s appointment is an exercise in succession management in as much that he will replace someone already at the club seems doubtful in my opinion.  Grant reports directly to Kenyon who is a close ally of Mourinho and the Portuguese has an already outstanding record at the club in the three seasons’ he’s been here.  Arnesen may have more direct input from Grant’s direction but we were very aggressive in recruiting him from Spurs and it won’t be long before we should begin to see the fruits of his work, so Grant replacing Arnesen seems a non-starter.

Appointing Grant as technical director essentially completes the continental model of football club management where youth development, reserves, senior squad etc have their own head and a technical director overseeing these departments and providing the link between the “footballing side” and the board. 

In Spain and Italy the structure is often more complex than the Chelsea prototype outlined above.  It is not uncommon for say, the technical director of Valencia to inform the board of what players HE thinks the club needs.  In some cases the coach (or first team manager) may be asked for his input on required signings – and sometimes not.  Rijkaard at Barcelona, for example, often informs the technical director about who he wants so the decision making process wirh regard to signings isn’t dictatorial - It appears that the latter will be the case at Chelsea football club.

One of the principal effects on Chelsea of this new structure will be on the internal politics.  Each department will now have more time to focus on their particular responsibility and use Grant as a buffer between them and the board – Grant can handle all the communications from these departments and Kenyon, to whom Grant will directly report.

Long-term strategy is another matter.  Given Grant’s knowledge and the apparent respect Abramovich has for him there’s no doubt that the Israeli’s input will not only be welcome but required by the board.  Time will tell – and that shouldn’t sound ominous as we should bear in mind that Grant’s contract term is surprisingly short – just 2 years, which to me suggests that whilst the board have made a fairly bold move in changing the structure within the club, they also appear to be adopting a “let’s suck and see” approach. 

YEAH, OK, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE EFFECT ON MOURINHO?

Grant will act as a buffer between Jose and the board and given Grant’s man management and communication skills he could even actually be an ally to the Portuguese in that he can help the board understand the first team manager’s requirements. 

Avram Grant himself has insisted that his appointment as Chelsea's new technical director of football was made with "Jose Mourinho's blessing" , which flies in the face of the media reports in January that José was livid about Grant’s arrival.  There are basically two possibilities; Mourinho was not against the appointment in the first place or he’s since been talked round and “reassured.”  Whatever conclusion you want to draw, Mourinho was observed “relaxed” and “chatting affably” with Grant upon arrival in California on Monday. 

As far as training sessions and match days are concerned, we can look to how Grant was involved with Portsmouth.  He had a reputation of being “seen and not heard”, “on the sidelines, in his tracksuit in the rain” during training sessions. On match days, he sat in the dug-out with Redknapp, Adams and Jordan but would give his input on tactics and substitutions without making the decisions himself.   

We understand that Mourinho has a distant relationship with Arnesen and we also know that Arnesen and Grant get on well together.  These pair of herbets are also supposed to have an excellent relationship with Abramovich and this could make Mourinho feel insecure.  Despite what some quarters say, I think this sounds all a bit childish and whilst I appreciate José does have his…how should I put it….slightly, petulant Latin side (which I love him for!) he’s also very professional and I can’t see school playground matters affecting him too much.  As long as Mourinho´s allowed to get on with first team matters without uninvited interference I don’t foresee any problems.  I’m sure José has read Redknapp´s comments on the Israeli and felt heartened by them. 

An apparent “Chelsea source” has also confirmed that Mourinho will be solely responsible for the first team and Grant won´t be making any decisions there.  This last point is crucial and us Mourinho supporters can take heart in that Roman has been quoted as greatly respecting Mourinho on football matters (and not just because of football) so it´s possible that Abramovich won´t want Grant ruffling too many feathers in the senior squad dressing room.

We have been led to believe that Grant has been told he should wait for an invitation from Jose Mourinho to take a place on the bench during match days and I suspect that Grant’s quite clever and will be as diplomatic as possible and wait for an invitation – I would love to see Jose let him into his private group now and then and the sight of Mourinho and Grant congratulating each other with the rest of the coaching team after a goal would certainly put a few noses out of joint in Fleet Street. 

The reports that Grant was bought in to work with Shevchenko I find too ridiculous to consider (What’s he going to do? Put out one more cone than Jose does and tell him to run that bit further?!)  However, I can see it now; Sheva has a storming season and the media hail Grant as yet another way of putting the boot in on José. 

There’s one thing that puzzles me and that is that I find it difficult to accept that the structure involving a technical director  was not discussed, outlined and agreed 3 years ago (at least to some degree) when Mourinho first met with Abramovich during the interview with Kenyon present on our new owner’s yacht.  Anyway…….

CONCLUSIONS

My opinion pretty much aligns with the following quotes from other Chelsea supporters and other football fans: 

“It works well as long as the coach has absolute say over the on-field football matters. Looks like Jose has been assured of that or he would be on his way. It also takes some of the pressure off him in non-footballing terms.”

“There is a huge amount of restructuring taking place at Chelsea and there are inevitably going to be growing pains. I think it would be careless for their rivals to take any solace from behind-the-scenes squabbles in SW6.” 

“I know people will twitch and moan but I DO think we needed a man to come in and act as that anchor to the other sections, Kenyon simply doesn't have the footballing nous to perform the role and therefore he and Roman could be too easily swayed by independent advisors.”

”This way the footballing side of things has a bit of structure, a clear voice on the board and someone to bring everyone’s efforts together in going forward.”

”Personally I don't think he'll be overly involved in first team signings, more linking the different tiers of the club together so say if Jose were to ask for a left winger for the squad Grant would consult Neil Bath or Fraser and about the progress Sinclair or Tajera have made and come back to Jose in suggesting one of them could be given a crack.”

“Chelsea have not made any headline-grabbing signings this summer - they didn't need to. But they have made bold moves in non-playing areas; a new training centre and youth development program opened, and the arrival of Grant who brings many positives to Chelsea.”

”Jose ISNT a club manager imo, he's a world class coach and first team manager but is it realistic to expect him to shoulder responsibility for all recruitment, all training methods, and all strategies? No - I reckon this on paper is a great decision by the board”

And then Mourinho himself:

“It’s not my job to speak about him or about what he has to do at the club,” Mourinho said. “The club statement was clear. He’s here to try to give some support to different areas in the club and, for me, that’s not a problem. If the club wants to bring people in to make the club better, to create a job for someone, to give support to different areas of the club, that’s no problem. From my point of view, it won’t interfere with the power I have in relation to my job. I welcome him, I’ll try to help him adapt to a club like Chelsea.”

So, for the time being at least, let´s do invite the “devil” in for nice cup of tea – maybe even give him a biscuit as well?

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