Avram Grant was 90 minutes from winning the League Cup, 90 minutes from the end of the Premier League season he was still in the race for the title. And in the biggest tournament in club football, he was within one penalty kick of winning the whole thing.

The fact that this trio of oh-so-near misses actually happened in the same season shows that the Israeli was so close to success that he could smell its fetid breath.

Ever since Grant took charge at Chelsea there was a section of the press that was itching to attack him, with sensational froth about his tactical stupidity doing the rounds.

'Thaksin Shinawatra is rumoured to be sniffing around Grant with a view to bringing him in to replace Sven-Goran Eriksson'


Now, even the press seem to appear sorry for Avram. The season Grant has had has been nothing short of sensational, he came very close to winning three trophies – not a bad haul at all for a manager in his first season in the Premier League.

Grant was also made to join the Premier League party relatively late – and was unable to galvanise the side through a pre-season, nor was he able to pick from a squad of players that he had brought in. And worse still, Jose Mourinho had won the hearts of many of the important Chelsea players, so when the modest Israeli shuffled in he had already lost many in the changing room just because he was the 'anti-Mourinho'.

Replacing grandiose statements and pure distilled Portuguese charisma with mumbled half sentences and lots of navel gazing was always going to ruffle a few feathers. Ironically for two men who play such a different game off the field with the press, Mourinho and Grant played a very similar system on the pitch, and therein lays the one crumb of evidence for which to attack Grant’s tenure at Chelsea.

When Grant first eased himself into the Chelsea hot seat, he made one bold promise, that he would improve the way Chelsea play, and try to carve a side that was much more easy on the eye than the team that Mourinho held sway over.

This is patently something the Israeli has not been able to do, and many press hounds leapt on him over the fact that he abandoned his pledge to improve the way Chelsea play football.

But is this one fact enough to sack a manager? The fact that success-craving Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra is rumoured to be sniffing around Grant with a view to bringing him in to replace Sven-Goran Eriksson shows you that not everyone feels the way Chelsea do about Avram.