Avram Grant

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Personal information
Avram Grant אברהם גרנט

Full name	Avraham Grant
Date of birth	May 6 1955 (1955-05-06) (age 52)
Place of birth	Petah Tikva, Israel
Club information
Current club	Chelsea F.C. (manager)
Teams managed
1986-1991 1991-1995 1995-1996 1996-2000 2000-2002 2002-2006 2007-	Hapoel Petah Tikva F.C. Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. Hapoel Haifa F.C. Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. Maccabi Haifa F.C. Israel Chelsea F.C.
* Appearances (Goals)

Avraham "Avram" Grant (Hebrew: אברהם "אברם" גרנט‎; born 6 May 1955 in Petah Tikva, Israel) is an Israeli association football manager and current First Team Coach of Chelsea Football Club. Grant has spent the majority of his career coaching and managing in Israel, winning a number of national league and cup victories with different teams, and also managing the national team for a time. Grant moved to England in 2006 to become Technical Director of Portsmouth F.C. before being appointed Director of Football at Chelsea F.C. in July 2007. Two months later, in September 2007, and following the departure of José Mourinho, Grant was appointed manager of Chelsea.

1 Career
- 1.1 Israel
  - 1.1.1 Israeli national team
  - 1.1.2 Management style
- 1.2 England
  - 1.2.1 Chelsea FC
2 Personal life
3 Honours
4 Statistics
5 References
6 External links

Career

Israel

Grant's professional coaching career started at age 18, in 1972, as youth coach of his home-town team, Hapoel Petah Tikva. In 1986, After a 14-year spell in this job, he was promoted to first team coach, leading the club to two Toto Cup victories, in 1990 and 1991, thus bringing Hapoel Petah Tikva back to the top of Israeli football after nearly 25 years. During this era Petah Tikva fought regularly for the championship against Shlomo Sharf's Maccabi Haifa. In his last season in Petah Tikva, Grant lost both the championship and the Israel State Cup within 3 days to Maccabi Haifa, in a chain of events which is commonly known in Israel as "the Double robbery".^[1] The next year the club won its first major title in 30 years, by winning its second-ever Israeli cup. The following season Grant moved to coach Maccabi Tel Aviv winning the Ligat ha'Al in his first season with them, with a 13-point advantage over the second place team. Maccabi Tel Aviv lost out closely in the final of the Israeli cup and was thus denied a historic double. The cup was won by Maccabi Tel Aviv under Grant's control, however, in 1994, followed with another Ligat ha'Al championship in 1995. Following this, Grant moved to Hapoel Haifa for what has been described as a short and unsuccessful spell, finishing fourth in the Israeli championship. Grant returned to Maccabi Tel Aviv between 1997 and 2000, although this period was less successful than his previous one at the club, winning just the Toto Cup in 1999. Grant moved to Maccabi Haifa in 2000, where he coached until 2002. There, he led the team to great success, winning the Ligat ha'Al in 2001 and 2002, as well as the Toto Cup in 2002, whilst narrowly missing out on the Israeli cup, to miss winning the treble.

Israeli national team

After leaving Haifa in 2002, Grant became the youngest national team coach of Israel, replacing the Dane, Richard Møller Nielsen. Although not qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Israel finished third in their qualifying group behind winners France and runners-up Switzerland. Israel missed on qualification to the finals, despite remaining undefeated in the group with four wins and six draws.

Management style

Grant is known in Israel for giving a chance to young players in almost every club he coached, such as Alon Hazan and goalkeeper Raffi Cohen in Petah Tikva, Avi Nimni and Itzik Zohar in Maccabi Tel Aviv, Gal Alberman in the Israeli team, and many more. Grant famously did not included Israeli star Eyal Berkovic in the national squad during 2005, saying he wanted to create "a younger team", but, nonetheless, retaining 34 year-old Avi Nimni. In 2007, Berkovic described the way Grant became Chelsea's manager as "disgusting" and "disrespectful".^[2] Another known critic of Grant in Israel is Shlomo Sharf, who was Israel's coach during most of the nineties. Grant, as is also the case with another coach from Petah Tikva, current Israel coach Dror Kashtan, is considered one of the most successful Israeli coaches. He has a reputation of a lucky winner in Israel, which caused the invention of the frequently used humour term 'Hatachat shel Avram'. This means 'Avram's arse', a reference to the allegedly large amount of luck Grant enjoyed during the 2006 World Cup campaign.^[3]^[4]

England

In October 2005, Grant announced that he would step down from the national team as his contract was due to expire in June of the following year. Subsequently, he took up the position of Technical Director at Portsmouth in June 2006, overseeing Harry Redknapp's side.

Chelsea FC

Grant with Chelsea.

A personal friend of Roman Abramovich, on 8 July 2007 Avram Grant was appointed Director of Football at Chelsea.^[5] After the departure of José Mourinho from Chelsea on September 20 2007, Grant was assigned the manager's role, with Steve Clarke, and later Henk ten Cate (on October 11, 2007) as his assistants.^[6]^[7] A number of Chelsea fans did not take well to Grant's appointment. They have protested Mourinho's departure, holding banners at games, which read "Mourinho - the special one", and chanting Mourinho's name.^[8] Chelsea FC have stated that some of the protests directed towards Grant constitute abuse of a racist nature. Bruce Buck, chairman of Chelsea, claims they have received points of view which are racist and anti-semitic. Buck stated: "[This] unfairly smears the reputation of the vast majority of the Chelsea fans who rightly do not want to be associated with such activity." .^[9] On the other hand, many Chelsea fans feel their objections against Grant being appointed as the team's manager are justified, citing his "lack of expertise at the highest levels of football" and Grant's lack of a formal UEFA qualification as manager. Several unnamed Chelsea players have been quoted as saying Grant's methods are "25 years behind the times" and "Chelsea deserve a bigger coach than him. Grant does not have the quality to coach a team like this. When we play big opponents we will suffer because of him." At least one member of Grant's coaching staff has told friends that they will consider leaving the club if there is no further change in management.^[10] Grant faced his first game only 3 days after taking up the manager's role, losing 2–0 to Manchester United on 24 September. On his first Champions league match as a coach (with Chelsea and in general) he led Chelsea to a 2–1 away win over Valencia, replicating one of Mourinho's most celebrated wins.^[11] Chelsea went on to register a 16-game unbeaten run under Grant, including beating Manchester City 6-0 in one of Chelsea's biggest wins. Subsequently, Grant was offered and signed a four-year contract with Chelsea in December 2007.^[12]

Personal life

Grant is married to Israeli television personality Tzofit Grant. He has two children^[13]. Grant’s father, Meir, was born in Poland and deported to Siberia during the second world war. Most of his father's family were murdered during the Holocaust.^[14]

Honours

With Hapoel Petah Tikva:
- Toto Cup (2): 1989/90; 1990/91
With Maccabi Tel Aviv:
- Ligat ha'Al (Premier League) Championship (2): 1991/92; 1994/95
- Israel State Cup: 1993/94
- Toto Cup (2): 1992/93; 1998/99
With Maccabi Haifa:
- Ligat ha'Al (Premier League) Championship (2): 2000/01; 2001/02
- Toto Cup: 2001/02

Statistics

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
Team	Nat	From	To	G	W	L	D	Win %
Hapoel Petah Tikva		1986	1991
Maccabi Tel Aviv		1991	1995
Hapoel Haifa		1995	1996	30	19	4	7	63.3
Maccabi Tel Aviv		1996	2000
Maccabi Haifa		2000	2002	71	46	6	19	64.8
Israel		2002	2005	33	14	6	13	42.4
Chelsea		2007		15	10	2	3	66.66

References

^ "A history of matches between Hapoel Petah Tikva and Maccabi Haifa", The Hapoel Petah Tikva museum (Hebrew). Retrieved on 2007-09-23.
^ "Berkovic: Grant won Chelsea job in disgusting, disrespectful way", Tribalfootball.com, 2007-09-24. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
^ "Poor view of Wayne Rooney", The Telegraph, 2007-09-23. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
^ "Why Avraham Grant is the right man to succeed Mourinho", Sportingo.com, 2007-09-20. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
^ "Grant given position at Chelsea", BBC Sport, 2007-07-08. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
^ "Chelsea name Grant as new manager", BBC Sport, 2007-09-20. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
^ "Ten Cate completes Chelsea switch", BBC Sport, 2007-10-11. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
^ Chelsea 0-0 Fulham. BBC Sport. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
^ Chelsea angry at Grant barracking. BBC Sport. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
^ Chelsea players: Grant 'not good enough'. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
^ Valencia 1 Chelsea 2. The Sun. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
^ Chelsea extend Grant's contract. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-12-14.
^ "Biography for Tzufit Grant", IMDB. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
^ "I didn't stab Jose Mourinho in the back, says Avram Grant", The Sunday Times. Retrieved on 2007-09-23.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by Eli Cohen	Maccabi Haifa manager 2000-2002	Succeeded by Itzhak Shum
Preceded by Richard Møller Nielsen	Israel national football team manager 2002-2006	Succeeded by Dror Kashtan

• • e

Chelsea F.C. – current squad

1 Čech • 3 A. Cole • 4 Makélélé • 5 Essien • 6 Carvalho • 7 Shevchenko • 8 Lampard • 9 Sidwell • 10 J. Cole • 11 Drogba • 12 Mikel • 13 Ballack • 14 Pizarro • 15 Malouda • 17 Sinclair • 18 Bridge • 20 Ferreira • 21 Kalou • 22 Ben Haim • 23 Cudicini • 24 Wright-Phillips • 26 Terry • 33 Alex • 35 Belletti • 40 Hilário • 42 Sawyer • 46 Smith • 48 Woods • 51 Hutchinson • Manager: Grant

• • e

Chelsea F.C. – Managers

Robertson (1905–06) • Lewis (1906–07) • Calderhead (1907–33) • Knighton (1933–39) • Birrell (1939–52) • Drake (1952–61) • Docherty (1961–67) • Sexton (1967–74) • Suart (1974–75) • McCreadie (1975–77) • Shellito (1977–78) • Blanchflower (1978–79) • Hurst (1979–81) • Gould (1981) • Neal (1981–85) • Hollins (1985–88) • Campbell (1988–91) • Porterfield (1991–93) • Webb (1993) • Hoddle (1993–96) • Gullit (1996–98) • Vialli (1998–2000) • Rix (2000) • Ranieri (2000–04) • Mourinho (2004–07) • Grant (2007–)