Avram Grant, You Can Start Laughing It Up Now!

Avram Grant, Average Grant, AV Grant, The 'Average One', however you would like to view him or by whichever moniker you know him as, Avram Grant and his seven month stint was met with many views right through his tenure.

Some couldn't get over Jose Mourinho and his charismatic personality, others couldn't believe how this guy got the job out of the blue (no pun intended), while some were just hoping Chelsea could get into the Champions League places before a certain Roman Abramovich chose a proper manager to take the reins.

To the day, it's 16 months later and Avram Grant can well and truly be laughing, as Chelsea, late Lampard show or not, are struggling. Scraping past Stoke, to hold onto third ahead of Villa and a chasing Arsenal, it's not looking too rosy for Scolari and Abramovich.

Let's face it—the impeccable home form of Chelsea is now gone, going down to Burnley and being held by Southend, along with losses to teams around them and draws against teams below them.

At the start it looked like they could hold onto or be around top spot due to away form, but after more draws and a near demolition job at the hands of Fergie's Red Devils, it makes you realise the once cashed up Blues are well and truly on the downfall.

And you'd have to ask: Could it have been different if Avram Grant was still in the hot-seat?

I think so, I truly do. Fighting off till the last day in the league after coming into the position when Chelsea were in 6th and points off the top. Had he been in from the start, although speculation, you could mount a case to say he and Chelsea would have taken it. But what happened, happened and now when you see it in perspective, he could only take them to the Final day, still a great achievement from such an "Average" manager.

On a smaller scale he took Chelsea to the Carling Cup Final and let's face it, eight out of 10 times and Chelsea would have prevailed in that game. One of the two times struck and he was out of that too.

Then came the biggest accomplishment of all, the Champions League Final. Grant had led The Pensioners to a stage they had not been for a prior 103 years, all in his seven month rein, the big one, the biggest club game of the season. Do remember this all came about after he came in following a disappointing draw to Rosenborg BK in the Champions League.

 Remarkably, not only did they put up a good fight in the game, they came within a coat of paint of lifting the trophy that now sits elegantly at Old Trafford. Some point the finger at Drogba, some Anelka, a few at Terry...

But the writing was on the wall—Grant forged a succesful side.

No one can argue with that and I still don't see how Abramovich could fire Grant. There were rumors that the dressing room morale wasn't great, but surely had Terry stuck the ball an inch closer to Van Der Sar's right hand post, all would be forgotten and AV Grant would be in the hot-seat as I write?

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