And the final award of an absorbing Premier League season – The Most Ridiculous and Callous Act By Any Club Anywhere in the World – goes to Chelsea!

Can you honestly believe they actually waited until three days AFTER the club lost the Champions League final before they fired Avram Grant? What was wrong with the day BEFORE the final? That might just have made the humiliation that much easier to understand.

The way that moneybags Roman Abramovich and his greasy chief executive sidekick Peter Kenyon have manoeuvred Grant into an almost impossible situation is appalling.

From the moment he was appointed after the removal of Jose Mourinho some eight months ago, Grant has been living under constant threat of the axe. Never has he been given the respect he richly deserves

No matter that he quashed a minor dressing-room revolt and dragged Chelsea from lifeless third-place Premier League title contenders to within a whisker of the unlikeliest triumph in the history of the competition, and took them to their first Champions League final ever, he was doomed from the moment he walked into Stamford Bridge.

Perhaps he was never cut out for the job. Perhaps he should have delivered the twin-trophy double on a golden platter for his ungrateful masters. Perhaps he should never have taken the job in the first place.

But it seems that losing out to Manchester United on two mega-rich fronts isn’t quite what Kenyon had in mind. It must have been quite galling for the man who was once chief exec of the club that administered such a public stuffing as that witnessed in the space of five days.

A statement on the club's official website read: "Chelsea Football Club can confirm that Avram Grant has had his contract as manager terminated today. This follows meetings over the last two days. Everybody at Chelsea FC would like to thank Avram for his contribution since taking over as manager last September. We will now be concentrating all our efforts on identifying a new manager for Chelsea and there will be no further comment until that appointment is made."

'Perhaps Avram was lucky to get within one solid shot of glory in Moscow, otherwise he might have been dragged off, put in the stocks and pelted with rotten tomatoes'


Well, thanks a bundle! Perhaps Avram was lucky to get within one solid shot of glory in Moscow, otherwise he might have been dragged off, put in the stocks and pelted with rotten tomatoes.

Perhaps the Israeli didn’t exactly set the place alight with his persona and playing style, but he did bring a welcome touch of honesty, genuine endeavour, total commitment and a certain amount of pride back to a club that was heading for a crisis.

Now the futures of his assistants, Steve Clarke and Henk Ten Cate, will be debated and it is almost certain that they will follow Grant through the door. And the guessing games begin. Barcelona's Frank Rijkaard, Inter coach Roberto Mancini and Russia's Dutch boss Guus Hiddink have all been linked with the job in recent weeks and they would all be expected to bring along their support staff.

Or perhaps we’re building up for a return of The Special One? Abramovich, Kenyon and Mourinho certainly deserve each other.