As Chelsea won game after game following Jose Mourinho’s sacking, it was hard to explain to those who hadn’t experienced Avram Grant at first hand why the new man just wasn’t going to work out. It wasn’t that he wasn’t Mourinho, nor that he didn’t have much of a CV, and it had nothing to do with the football, because Grant’s Chelsea was as good and as efficient as his predecessor’s. The problem, and it was an insurmountable one, was the public persona of a man known to some as Average Grant.

Of course, he was a good man, you could tell that a mile off, but he didn’t have it. After games, he sat before the journalists and the broadcasters and offered us his take on the match we had just seen. It was delivered with a vague indifference that bordered on arrogance and in a speaking style that put the mono into tone. Most of all, he never empathised with a question and never engaged with the person asking it.

You listened and wondered how Chelsea’s players could survive five consecutive days of this man, let alone five months. He could speak English but he couldn’t communicate, and no matter how he might transform himself on the training ground, you still couldn’t imagine passion, humour and charisma. And it wasn’t unusual that Grant came to mind as the new manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, introduced himself to the English public at the Hilton Hotel, near Cobham, last Tuesday.

As he was about to take his first question at the second of three press conferences, Scolari gently raised his hand to signal a temporary halt. One journalist was late putting his recorder in position and, rather than ignore him, the Brazilian acknowledged his presence, took the recorder and then rearranged the 20 or so little machines in a semicircle around him. He then looked his questioner in the eye and asked him to continue.

In 20 seconds, he had done something Grant hadn’t managed in six months. For this is a man who deals in human beings: John Terry had come into his office to introduce himself, and Scolari told him there was no need for him to say who he was because he already knew him. The manager also talked about how impressed he was to find Ashley Cole and Joe Cole back at the training ground before the designated day for the players’ return. They had come back early to have minor injuries treated.

He noted, too, the enthusiasm on the training ground when the rest of the squad returned, he didn’t sense any lament for the end of the summer break and felt the friendships that existed among the players. His English is good, perhaps not as good as Grant’s, but as a communicator, he’s on another planet.

At one point, he wished to say that it wasn’t his style to prioritise one competition over another, that he wanted Chelsea to win every cup and league they contested. To better illustrate his point, he used the digital recorders as props, this one the Carling Cup, this one the Champions League. “If I say to you, if I say to my players, the Champions League is more important than this, the Carling Cup, I think the players will only prepare for the Champions League. This is not correct.

“If I say to my players, all competitions are important for Chelsea, I think that is the way. Don’t think about the Champions League. When we arrive in the Champions League, we will think about it.”

He was asked about England and explained why he thought so highly of Fabio Capello. “I like Fabio Capello too much,” he said, when he meant very much, but everyone understood. “He said many things to me while I was coach of Brazil. He gave me confidence when I started to play three centre-backs. In Brazil they wanted to kill me because this is not normal in Brazil. I met Capello when he was manager at Roma. ‘Follow your idea,’ he said. ‘But they want to kill me,’ I said. ‘No problem, but follow your idea, Felipe.’ He gave me confidence when I needed it.”

Scolari told how Capello would occasionally advise him not to select Roma’s Cafu or Emerson for a particular Brazil match when he didn’t feel they were in good condition. “I didn’t respect his opinion, I brought that player, we lost the game and who made the mistake, the man Capello told me not to take. ‘Okay, Capello,’ I said, ‘now I follow you.’”

Self-deprecation is one part of his performance, humility is another. Asked if he was special as a manager, like the self-proclaimed Special One, he said he was special to his family and friends, but “so-so” as a manager. Perhaps the best moment of all was when he talked about the bonhomie among the Chelsea players and, as he observed, he felt he could tell “what is happening in the bedroom”. Of course, he meant to say “dressing-room” but if he reads lots of English newspapers, he will discover what is happening in the bedroom.

We don’t yet know if Phil Scolari can manage at the highest level of club football. What we do know is that he is bright, personable, passionate and that he can be volatile. “The thing,” he said, that most disappoints in players, “is a lack of professionalism.” It is very likely he will further improve what is already a fine team spirit at Stamford Bridge and Chelsea will be at least as hard to beat as they were under Mourinho and Grant. They may be better, but whether Scolari’s team plays more attractive football is a moot point. You sense he is a winner but you know he’s a pragmatist, a man for whom substance reigns over style. Perhaps it is Roman Abramovich who will have to bend a little, to accept that winning comes first.

Much will depend upon the nature of Scolari’s relationship with the owner of the club. Mourinho managed everything at Stamford Bridge except Abramovich. Such was the fuss created when Scolari unwittingly suggested he didn’t mind if the owner brought in new players, with media advisers quickly pointing out and correcting the mistake, that the new manager already understands the eminence at the club of the one who most matters.

The manager and owner have already had two meetings and, as is his way, the Brazilian was upbeat in his impressions. “The second meeting, when we spoke about Chelsea, about this job, he say to me, he wants Chelsea as a team, as a group. He wants Chelsea to play well and win, and I said, ‘Yes, I want the same’. He did not say to me, ‘This player good, this player no good’. He say, ‘I want Chelsea to play well, play beautifully and win’.”

Long before he finished talking on Tuesday, Scolari had his most of his audience on his side. The last thing he did was recall his first day at work for Chelsea. “I arrived into England on Saturday, and I go to Chelsea on Sunday morning. I arrived there and saw all the staff, everything, and I was a bit scared with the enormity of it all. I was impressed. After this, I say, ‘Okay, I am here now, I need to work well at this club’. I felt I had arrived in the best position in the world, coach of Chelsea. That was my impression.”

Foreign coaches with the winning touch

ARSENE WENGER (Fr) Arsenal 1996- Wenger has twice won the FA Cup and Premier League double (1998, 2002), adding a third league title in 2004 and two more FA Cups (2003, 2005)

RUUD GULLIT (Hol) Chelsea 1996-98 In his first season, Gullit became the first nonBritish boss to win the FA Cup, but was sacked after a dispute with the board

GIANLUCA VIALLI (It) Chelsea 1998-2000 Vialli replaced Gullit as player-manager and lifted the Cup Winners’ Cup and League Cup in his first season. Won the European Super Cup the following year and the FA Cup in 2000. Sacked five games into 2000-01 season

GERARD HOULLIER (Fr) Liverpool 1998-2004 Houllier won the FA Cup, League Cup and Uefa Cup in 2001, plus the Super Cup and the League Cup again in 2003. Failure to win the league cost him his job

JOSE MOURINHO (Por) Chelsea 2004-07 Steered Chelsea to the League Cup and their first league title in 50 years in 2005. Won the title again the following season. Picked up his second League Cup and the FA Cup in 2007 before leaving in September after falling out with Roman Abramovich

RAFA BENITEZ (Sp) Liverpool 2004- Benitez won the Champions League in his first season, then lifted the European Super Cup followed by the FA Cup in 2006

JUANDE RAMOS (Sp) Tottenham 2007- Brought in to replace Martin Jol, Ramos started brilliantly, beating Chelsea 2-1 to lift the 2008 League Cup