the blog of manchester united

It’ll be the unfamiliar face from the visitor bench this Sunday when Chelsea travel to Old Trafford with Avram Grant (their directory of football) installed as the head coach for Chelsea for the rest of the season (as it is at the time of the press).

Exactly, who’s this lad?  He’s an Israeli, who coached both Maccabi Tel Aviv and the prestigious Maccabi Haifa before leading the Israel national team during their unsuccessful qualifying campaign for World Cup 2006, albeit having not lost a game in the qualifying tournament.  He later has a brief stint at Portsmouth as their technical director (where he has glowing praises from Harry Redknapp), before joining Chelsea in the summer as their director of football (with strong opposition from Mourinho).

On the paper, his achievement looks bland compared to that of the Special One, however one thing they share in common is that both are NOT and have never played professional football!  This lad, though began his coaching career at the age of 19 (where some people hasn’t even begun their playing career .  One thing though that make him so different from the Special One, is that he’s so special in his own right in the sense that he does have a good relationship with Abramovich , unlike the Special One.   That, contributes to putting him in this position today, although for how long it’ll last, all we can do is wait and see.

As a United fans, I rejoice in Chelsea’s sacking of Mourinho, but as a football fan, I think we’ve lost the entertainment of Mourinho (especially his irrational post match comments), and a coach who’s proven he can deliver, given the full authority in team affairs.