Grant glee at keeping Ferguson off the red

(GETTY IMAGES)

By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent

Avram Grant does not upset many of English football's major figures, in fact he claims most of them are his friends, so Sir Alex Ferguson must have been in a really bad mood to skip his post-match drink with the Chelsea manager last Saturday. Having blasted the referee and excoriated the linesman that day, the Scot departed without stopping to discuss how this season's title race has been blown wide open by Chelsea's victory.

When Ferguson does not hang around for a post-match glass of red it is fair to say that the opposing manager has probably had a good day. "He [Ferguson] was so angry after the game I couldn't speak with him," Grant said yesterday. The Chelsea manager had already ticked off Alan Curbishley for his pro-Ferguson comments and, with two games left in the Premier League season, starting with Newcastle United on Monday, looked decidedly like a man who was enjoying himself.

In the previous two days he had taken Chelsea to their first European Cup final and articulated the hopeful spirit of the Israeli nation at the Holocaust memorial at Auschwitz, so you can forgive Grant for feeling like the man of the moment. He is not a contender to be English football's biggest polemicist but you could sense the relish with which he mischievously imagined the mindset of United and Ferguson; three weeks ago they were cruising towards the title, now they are looking nervously over their shoulders at Chelsea's challenge.

"I understand them," Grant said. "They fought all the time with Arsenal and, when they beat them off, they must have thought everything was OK. Now Chelsea have come up and we're almost in the same position. It's pressure. It's not easy." You can see what he means. Second only on goal difference with five wins out of their last six League games, Chelsea are the team with the momentum and their manager is confident enough to be challenging other managers for daring to suggest United are champions-elect.

These are by no means the desk-thumping, finger-jabbing mind games that have characterised Ferguson's title run-ins with Arsène Wenger in the past, however, because Grant likes to convey the mood that he is above all that. "It is part of it, but you need to think about what you're trying to do. I can understand it if you're talking about a referee," he said, when it was put to him that it can be useful to apply psychological pressure on an opponent. In reality he still seems a bit afraid of the managerial big guns and prefers to keep his sarcastic comments aimed at the softer targets of the Press and match officials.

Nevertheless, since beating Liverpool on Wednesday, Grant is behaving ever more like a man who believes that his job is safe for another year. Roman Abramovich was not at Stamford Bridge to see his team win their semi-final second leg but Grant said yesterday that the Russian billionaire with the demanding schedule was "happy" with events. "Do I look worried [about my future]? No," Grant said. "I knew since day one in this job that I need to do my job all the time, to look at the present and the future for this club. About my personal life, I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. Professionally, I know what Chelsea need to do tomorrow, a week from now or two years from now."

But if he does win one or even both of the trophies Chelsea are chasing this season the temptation to move upstairs and allow someone else to take the pressure will be huge. Should he deliver Abramovich the Champions League in Moscow on 21 May life will surely never get any better for Grant. What better moment to slip back into his former role as director of football? He would not be responsible for trying to repeat the feat and anyone who doubted his credentials could simply be pointed in the direction of the replica European Cup in the trophy cabinet.

"The first ambition was to be in the final of the Champions League, especially in Moscow, which means so much for the owner," he said. "We did that. With more food, you have more appetite." True – but if he wins in Moscow, Grant has a meal ticket for life as well as a seat at the top table of Europe's coaching glitterati. Why spoil it by trying to do it all over again?