What riles me is the manner by which he was let go: the club went through the motions of making it seem as if Grant was being given time to build/rebuild the team. They publicly denied using winning trophies as benchmarks for Grant; they signed him to a 4-year contract; even in his last press conferences they allowed him to speak about team’s plans for the next season.

The club built up false expectations of a long-term movement and deliberately let them down now – that’s my beef.

With that, it’s hard to get angry with Abramovich: he did a great philanthropic deed by allowing a virtual unknown like Grant to lead such a high profile team. Grant’s success in such a public arena brought great pride and credit to Israeli sports and Jewish sportsmen.

In spite of this club decision, I’m still happy Grant got this rare opportunity and that he will continue to bring class and success wherever he goes.

HE GOT ISRAEL WITHIN GOAL DIFFERENCE OF MAKING THE PLAYOFF MATCHES IN A VERY TOUGH QUALIFYING GROUP.

Again he outfoxed Fergie on two occasions. Has it ever been argued that Alex Ferguson has over whehming talent and somehow until this year has had a remarkable run of not fulfilling his teams potential in European competitions? Should I argue for his sacking based on that? Should Wenger be sacked for not taking Arsenal to the CL finals the last two seasons. Of course not.

England is now becoming more and more like Italy and Spain as I mentioned above with these quick fixes demanded by owners at large clubs and a rotating door at manager. Part of the PL’s success has been the consistency of its managers and product. Roman’s continued meddling with Chelsea threatens that.

If you’ve followed my articles here or at my own site, you’ll have noticed that I’ve never, ever been high on Avram Grant. He stumbled into this job by being close friends with Abromavich, not through an impressive managerial resume. I’ve criticized him for his tactical naivety, not just in the CL final, and for his personality and demeanor.

If Terry hadn’t slipped, then yes, Grant would’ve won something, a major trophy at that, and my arguments against him would’ve obviously been diminished and I would’ve had to give him credit. But the fact of the matter is Terry DID slip, and Chelsea DIDN’T win, and didn’t win any trophies this season after winning at least one every year under Mourinho. Is it fair to Grant that Terry slipped, no, but life isn’t fair — that’s what happened, and Grant didn’t win anything.

would you have written a similar article if Terry hadn’t slipped and scored the penalty?