For a man often seen scrabbling around for spare kit at Portsmouth’s training ground or refereeing training matches involving the youth team, Avram Grant has caused a stink at the richest club in the world. This mysterious man, who is an unknown quantity at his own club, has friends in high places, some of whom appear determined to see him installed as first-team coach at Chelsea.
Having never worked outside Israel before joining Portsmouth last summer, Grant is an unusual saviour for a club with genuine aspirations of winning the Champions League, but Roman Abramovich did not accumulate the best part of $20 billion (about £10 billion) by being a slave to the orthodox. The Chelsea owner is a big admirer of a man whose work he has followed at close quarters for several years and, having fulfilled a promise to get him a job in England, would like to bring him to his club. Grant shares the same aspiration and has not been shy in telling people.
As the man mainly responsible for funding the appointment of Guus Hiddink as Russia coach, Abramovich’s patronage of Russian football has been well documented, but his involvement with the Israel team is less well known. It was in his capacity as a well-heeled supporter that, three years ago, Abramovich first met Grant, the Israel head coach at the time, with the introduction aided by Pini Zahavi, the agent and most powerful man in Israeli football. As a gregarious and outgoing sort — who also claims to be friends with Arsène Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson — Grant soon charmed Abramovich and they have been close ever since.
Abramovich attended Israel’s first qualifier for the 2006 World Cup against France in Paris and was a regular for most of the rest of the campaign. Unsurprisingly, given his wealth and influence, he was immediately invited into the fold, with his behaviour often mirroring the way he acts at Chelsea.
Abramovich was regularly seen visiting the dressing-room after matches and was even rumoured to offer lavish bonuses if Israel qualified for the World Cup finals, which they failed to do by finishing third behind France and Switzerland.
With an emotional and financial stake in the national team, Abramovich welcomed Grant into his inner circle of friends and advisers, seeking his advice on promising Israeli players he could take to Chelsea. Last February, Abramovich travelled to Tel Aviv with Frank Arnesen, the head of scouting and youth development, to spend several days with Grant, who was preparing to join Hapoel Tel-Aviv as manager while serving out his notice with the Israeli FA.
Grant’s move to Hapoel never took place because a proposed takeover of the club by Lev Leviev, an IsraeliRussian diamond billionaire and friend of Abramovich, collapsed. Despite this setback, Arnesen got on well with Grant, who, in May 2006, helped to broker a deal over an informal tie-up between the youth academies of Hapoel and Chelsea. The first fruits of this partnership were yielded last summer when Ben Sahar, a 17-year-old striker whom Arnesen had spotted playing for Israel schoolboys against Ireland schoolboys in 2004, signed for Chelsea.
While Arnesen appreciates Grant’s eye for a player, Abramovich places a higher premium on his coaching skills, which he was hoping could bring an improvement in the form shown by Andriy Shevchenko so far this season.
Another curiosity about his position as director of football at Portsmouth is the fact that he has never had another role concentrating solely on coaching from the moment he began his career as a 21-year-old looking after the youth team at Hapoel Petah-Tikya. The 51-year-old is respected as a sound tactician, although his detractors claim that his teams play conservative football, clashing with Abramovich’s desire to see a more expansive game at Stamford Bridge.
Israel were unbeaten in their World Cup qualifying campaign, but beat only the Faeroe Isles and Cyprus. Grant’s qualities have yet to show themselves at Portsmouth, where he has been marginalised from the outset. Although too shrewd to say so publicly, Harry Redknapp, the manager, has little time for a man perceived to be a spy for Alexandre Gaydamak, the owner, treating him with scornful indifference.
Redknapp was polite when asked about Grant’s contribution yesterday, although of greater significance was his admission that he can leave at any time. “If Avram wants to go, it will be his decision,” Redknapp said. “But I have not got a problem with him. 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.”
Portsmouth’s players are even more curious as to Grant’s role and while some poke fun, David Thompson characterised him as a kindly, if slightly distant, uncle in a recent interview with an Israeli television channel. “He’s very thoughtful and has some interesting views on life, which he shares with us,” Thompson said. “He’s like Socrates, but not the Brazilian footballer. His role is observational and he watches what we do.”
Grant is known to be a showman, so his claims to be simply marking time should not be taken at face value. With his future uncertain, Chelsea’s players could begin next season asking themselves the same questions as their puzzled Portsmouth counterparts.
Numbers up?
0: Number of matches that Israel lost under Avram Grant during the qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup finals — in a group that included France, Switzerland and Ireland
3: Position Israel finished in the qualifying group, narrowly missing out on the play-offs
0: Home matches that Grant’s Israel team played in their own country in their unsuccessful 2004 European Championship qualifying campaign — political instability meant that all four were played in Italy or Turkey
1: Israel’s appearances in the World Cup finals — in Mexico in 1970
4: Israeli league titles that Grant has won as a coach — twice each with Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Maccabi Haifa
2: Number of spells that Grant had as coach of Maccabi Tel-Aviv
7: Months since Grant became the director of football at Portsmouth
8: Years in age between Grant, 51, and Harry Redknapp, 59
Source: Times research
