CHELSEA owner Roman Abramovich sacked manager Avram Grant because he realised the Israeli would not be able to take the club any further, former Celtic and Israel midfielder Eyal Berkovic said last night.
Chelsea issued a statement on their website yesterday saying the club had terminated Grant's contract.
The decision came four days after Chelsea, who finished Premier League runners-up, were beaten on penalties in the Champions League final by Ma
nchester United.
"I have already said that Avram made a number of serious mistakes: his inability to communicate with the English media… his failure to befriend the fans and the undermining of Jose Mourinho," Berkovic said.
"All these led Roman Abramovich to understand that, despite his affection and friendship with Avram, it would not be enough to improve Chelsea's fortunes," he said.
Berkovic and Grant fell out in 2004 after the then Israel coach dropped his outspoken captain from the national team, a move which ended Berkovic's international career.
"I have no doubt that the day after he receives his severance pay cheque he will sit back at home and consider all the mistakes he made. He has been a consummate media operator, knows how to deal with players, but he failed badly at Chelsea in both these tasks," Berkovic said.
"Nevertheless, he will take with him a life-long souvenir – I don't see any Israeli coach coaching a club the size of Chelsea in the next 20 or 30 years."
He said Grant's rise to the top had been achieved too quickly and through the connections he had made.
"A coach, just like a player, must advance step by step. Avram passed over many stages on his way (to the top], he got to the top because of friendships and machinations and it was a mistake on his part," Berkovic said.
The former midfielder, who played at eight clubs in England as well as his time at Celtic from 1999-2001, said he did not think any other English club would consider hiring Grant "not because he is not a good coach, but because he made huge errors".
A host of names had already been linked with the Chelsea manager's job even before Grant was sacked.
The Israeli's tenure at Stamford Bridge was always viewed as a stop-gap measure even though the club consistently denied he would be leaving.
But the attention now switches to those men most likely to replace the 52-year-old Israeli and the first name in the frame is Frank Rijkaard. He was linked with the job as soon as previous boss Jose Mourinho was axed last September. Rijkaard has just been released by Barcelona after failing to win a trophy for the Spaniards in the last two seasons.
He is a friend of Frank Arnesen, who controls the club's scouting network, and has worked with assistant coach Henk ten Cate at the Nou Camp.
But Rijkaard has no Premier League experience and there have been recent concerns over his health as well as personal issues.
Dutchman Guus Hiddink is another favoured contender. Like Grant, he is a close friend of the club's billionaire owner Abramovich and regarded as the world's best tactician.
Hiddink has consistently denied being interested in the Chelsea job but has as yet, somewhat significantly, not signed a new deal with the Russian Federation. Abramovich is currently paying his salary to manage Russia and while there is no doubting his pedigree, he has not been involved in club football for some time.
Hiddink has more recently been associated with the international game, with spells in South Korea and Australia before taking on the Russian job.
Sven-Goran Eriksson is understood to have rejected the job on two previous occasions and was infamously caught secretly meeting the club's chief executive Peter Kenyon on one occasion. His future at Manchester City is unclear and, like Hiddink, he boasts a fine record at club and international level.
Then, of course, there is the most unlikely prospect of the return of fan's favourite Mourinho. The "Special One" was replaced by the luckless Grant after Chelsea's first Champions League game against a weak Rosenborg side ended in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Mourinho has been out of a job ever since but is favourite to join Inter Milan in the summer even though his relationship with Chelsea's Russian owner has been rebuilt in the last two months.
But his style of football was part of the reason for the severance in the first place and he would find it difficult to adopt another, more attacking approach. But at a club that opted to replace him with a 52-year-old Israeli, who had never managed in England before and was a virtual unknown outside his own country, anything is possible.
The full article contains 803 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
