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Former Chelsea Boss Providing The Comedy Ahead Of FA Cup

Ok, so anyone who visited TheChelseaBlog while Avram Grant was at Chelsea will know how I felt about him and his time at the club.  To say the season he was in charge was one of the most depressing I can remember as a supporter (and trust me, I actually was there when we were shit), would be an understatment.  Yes, I appreciate we made the Champions League final but I’ll never believe that had anything to do with him and the fact that he still uses that in his pathetic attempts to big himself up continues to wind me up.

It would have been wonderful after his farcial term as a Chelsea manager if he’d just disappeared off the face of the earth as far as I was concerned but of course we know he didn’t. He had brief spells at Pompey and West Ham – both of whom got rid of him because he was rubbish and managed to get himself caught at a brothel.  And of course, in the middle of all that, he’s used his time at Chelsea at every conceivable opportunity.

So predictably, with us facing one of his former sides in the FA Cup tomorrow, up pops the sour faced old codger with his two-pence worth on Chelsea again.  Despite the fact that in a season where we are clearly in transition and AVB hasn’t had the luxury of picking up a fully assembled title-winning side where the senior players don’t have age against them, Grant says “At a big club you want to win all the games but the cups are the last priorities at Chelsea. Andre knows that even if he takes the FA Cup, they will judge him on the League and the European Cup and by the quality of the football he has produced. The first priority at Chelsea is the Champions League because they have never won it; the second is the Premier League because from that you get into the Champions League and thirdly is the quality of football.

He will want to win the FA Cup but he knows these three things are what they will look at and, of course, how the players are performing. It has not been a great season for Chelsea. They have not been getting enough points in the League or playing the kind of football they’d hoped for. I think expectations were much higher. Consistency is very important. Chelsea haven’t showed it this season and I’m sure they want to improve that. You can tell if you have a big team if they lose one or two matches and then recover very well. But if you see that they lose one or two, then win, then lose again, it is not a big team.”

Because we were always consistent under Grant weren’t we? Well of course some of us remember that season differently – we might only have lost a couple of games but the draws (particularly at Stamford Bridge didn’t go unnoticed) but since he clearly feels he has such an insight into our players and how to handle them, he goes on to talk about how AVB might manage his squad and the upcoming game, suggesting “For Chelsea it is not an easy job because the pressure is coming from inside the club, not just from outside and you have to handle it. If problems are coming, you need to deal with it and I’m sure Andre knows this and that it’s the life of a manager. You have to deal with these situations.

If you need to give certain guys a rest, it may be because of a physical situation. Sometimes you have to give them a rest mentally. He needs to know what to do with all the players to keep them hungry and passionate because without passion, you have no chance.  However, big players feel good when they’re winning games and a run in the Cup can have a knock-on effect. On paper they have an easy game against Portsmouth, but you never know.”

Not that Grant is having a go at AVB of course, well if he wants to it isn’t that apparent anyway because he goes on “Patience in football is always good because if you are impatient, you won’t get results. When you sign a young coach like Villas-Boas, and there is no doubt he is a good guy with a love of football, you have to be patient. Chelsea knew this when they signed him from Porto last summer and should take this into account, even if the results right now are not what they expect. Andre knows that he has been given a lot of patience up until now and I hope they will continue to do so.

The other Chelsea coaches under Roman were sacked on the way down. I lost my job when the team were on the way up. I am only sad when I am asked about it. We got to the Champions League Final and the team improved in every aspect from the minute I took charge. I thought it was good for me and the team to continue this process but someone decided to finish it.”

And that was the point where he finally made me laugh!

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