Avram Grant: Could Image be His Biggest Hindrance?

This Wednesday will see Chelsea achieve something they could never manage under “The Special One”. Yes Mr Hangdog, the monotonic, scowling, “Average Grump," will lead his Chelsea team into a Champions League final.

Not to be forgotten as well, he has led Chelsea to an incredibly long unbeaten league run. Yet if you believe many in the game it’s still not good enough, and doubts still linger over his management.

Despite all of his excellent work this season, Grant arguably has the pressure on him, and he still has to prove himself to many observers.

Rumours persist that he will be replaced over the summer, even if he wins the Champions League trophy for the West Londoners. Perhaps this is because, in his own words, he doesn’t “shout a lot," or get animated on the touchline, and then after the game he fails to reel off witty one-liners in his interviews.

But shouldn’t he be judged on his abilities rather than his persona? No, it seems not in the world of sport.

So if a poor coach were put on the touchline, but one who had a big personality and lots of charisma, would his lack of ability to actually do his job to a good standard be forgotten? No, it wouldn’t, is the obvious and correct answer, but what seems apparent is that in sport two ingredients are often needed for someone to succeed.

They are the actual ability to carry out your role effectively and to a high standard, and allied to this, it is important how you are perceived by others—how well you can convince those within your sport, the media, pundits, and fans of your unquestionable abilities to do your job in an excellent way.

I'll throw in a lower league example, which, as a Northampton Town fan and a long-suffering follower of English lower league football, you’ll have to excuse me for.

But take a look at Nottingham Forest’s Colin Calderwood. I do acknowledge that he has recently achieved his second managerial promotion with Nottingham Forest, but I would argue, as I know would many other Northampton and Nottingham Forest fans, that he is probably not the greatest manager in the lower leagues.

Both his promotions were achieved after short amounts of time, three and two seasons, respectively. Both times when the clubs he was managing had resources and financial clout much greater than others in their league. But that seems to be overlooked by many observers in the game.

When you ask many observers and journalists who follow lower league football in England who an excellent lower-league manager is, the majority would most likely give Calderwood as their first answer.

Could this be because they are judging him on not just his abilities, but also his image and reputation? He is often very charming, very slick, coolness personified in his very media-friendly approach to the press. Therefore he is often built up as the best managerial talent to come out of the lower leagues.

Never mind the truly excellent jobs people like Steve Tilson and Gary Johnson have done, which seem to be overlooked by many who write and comment on the lower echelons of the English game.

They arguably aren’t so charismatic, and they don’t have quite as much media savvy. Therefore they often seem to get less of the limelight, less of the admiring compliments, and less media attention.

This is not just an issue in football but in other sports that have historical examples as well.

Think Formula One and Nigel Mansell. Back in his pre-Formula One days he raced in Formula Three. And he turned in some mighty impressive performances, winning many races and then testing a Formula One car whilst carrying an injury.

Despite this hindrance, he bravely set some very competitive lap times. Yet there was a problem, something that meant he struggled to get a Formula One drive. Many inside Formula One weren’t interested in trying him out as a race driver for their team, and, despite his undoubted talent, he was ignored for many years.

Yes, his lack of money and sponsorship was a problem, but so was the image of a man with a thick and dull Brummie accent and unfashionable moustache and hairstyle.

What it is then is not just an ability to do your job well. It is also about convincing others to perceive you as a true great.

And to do this you seemingly have to be all singing, all dancing, shouting, and arguing with officials and fans, showing huge outbursts of emotion. The calm-thinking, quiet, and often unfashionable person without bags of charisma and charm is often frowned upon.

As Avram Grant himself says, “British people seem to like shouting and pointing football managers.”

In a world where the media have such an influence on our perceptions and opinions, you have to be slick and charismatic, or else you are perceived as not  being up to the task. Never mind your results and performances, or your actual ability to do your job, you will always have those doubters if you are a little dour and uncharismatic.

Which is why next season, even if they do become European champions, I fear that Chelsea won’t be playing efficient and effective football whilst a certain Mr. Grump scowls on at them from the touchline.