It’s quite absurd as to how Avram Grant remains in a premier league job. Now, even Osama bin Laden has been terminated before Grant’s contract. The American authorities had searched tirelessly for almost ten years before finally tracking down their target, whilst Grant has been on show at Upton Park for the last nine months, sporting an embarrassing league record of a mere 20% win ratio, must we remind our owners that they have the ability to eliminate him? Perhaps in bin Laden’s killer we have finally found someone more ruthless than the acrimonious Karen Brady.
British football experts continually convince English clubs that they must continually adhere to the manager they have appointed, stating the few obvious case studies of David Moyes, Arsene Wenger and most notably Sir Alex Ferguson as examples of the fruits of long-term leadership. What they fail to recognise in the case of West Ham United is that, instead of appointing a young, enthusiastic, inspiring candidate wielding previous honours and success, such as that of the three names mentioned above, our owners somehow saw it fit to employ the dull, inadequate and recently relegated; Avram Grant.
It seemed rather strange of David Gold, at the time of the appointment, to describe Grant as someone who had “been there, done that and got the T-shirt”, when in fact, his Portsmouth side, albeit with a points deduction, had already sunk into the second tier of English football. In fact, his record with Portsmouth was even worse than it currently is with West Ham, so to blame their relegation on this penalty would be ridiculous. David Sullivan also agreed with his co-owner at the time, claiming; “we have taken our time over this appointment and are certain we have got the right man”. Perhaps this is the perfect statement to epitomise how much our owners actually know about football.
At the time, Gold also added that “the bottom line is the relationship between the manager and the chairman is critical. In our case it’s two chairmen so it’s even more difficult as you need to have a relationship between three people”. It is now evident that what Gold actually meant by this statement is that by handing the position to an innocuous, lifeless excuse of a manager, there was enough room for him, and Sullivan, to squeeze their inflated egos onto the scene.
Prior to the Manchester City game, the frustratingly irritating Sullivan couldn’t resist the attention of opening his mouth once again by announcing that the Hammers only have a “25% chance of staying up” and labelling the players “spoilt”, claiming most of them are more interested in “where they will be next season” than keeping West Ham in the premiership. Sullivan certainly has a warped view of motivation if he believes deeming the players fickle mercenaries will give them the inspiration to battle for some much needed points.
And then, in an act of comical hypocrisy, Sullivan (and Gold) failed to show at the City Of Manchester Stadium, justifying their disloyal absence with the impact of “watching our poor away performances week after week”. If his comments were not rich enough, he went on to compare his motivational skills to that of Winston Churchill. It’s no wonder as to why he was unable to secure the services of an established, dignified manager in Martin O’Neill in January, as he continues to embarrass himself, and thus the club, with these sporadic outbursts.
It’s also worth noting that Sullivan stated; “I do think that a manager needs that fear factor. You look at Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho. The players are a little bit frightened of them”. Obviously he completely ignored this belief when he appointed Grant as, with the omission of his eerily zombie-like demeanour, he would fail to strike fear, or any emotion for that matter, into anyone.
Even Demba Ba admitted that, in the brief February period in which we began to consistently win some games that “we had a new team … and other teams were surprised by us. Now they know how to counter us”. Clearly even Grant’s players recognise that he is tactically inadequate and that, even in the very few games he has won, it was not his ability as a manager but the fact he was able to spring a few new faces upon his opponent, before their traits were identified, assessed and countered by genuinely Premiership-quality managers, and it was back to square one.
Grant has tried to use this hopeless tactic all throughout the season, meaning West Ham have used more players than any other squad in the Premier League. Quite astounding considering the lack of depth in quality we have in some departments. Seeing Grant’s notebook fall apart and flutter around the pitch in Manchester last Sunday was quite symbolic of a man whose plans have completely crumbled. Seeing his hopeless attempt to collect them back together was perhaps even more significant in suggesting the lack of answers he has to the undeniable problems.
Seeing the emotion and joy on the faces of Norwich fans on Monday evening, following their promotion, sparked wonderful, nostalgic memories of our play-off success in 2005. However, it also provoked the epiphany of the immense value of premiership status, and the fact that at the moment, we are sickeningly throwing it away. Surely, whether he completes this demolition of another premiership club or not, Grant will be fired and disappear into the wilderness, as bin Laden did all those years ago. Inevitably he will never again have the chance to manage a premiership club, not that he was ever capable or worthy of doing so in the first place.
Grant’s career will be reflected on in bewilderment, as it was effectively based on absolutely nothing. However, I still believe that the team will remain in the premier league due to fortuitous fixtures, the incompetence of those around us and the personal brilliance of the likes of Scott Parker. That will leave us with yet another summer rebuilding job which must be done correctly this time. Where it leaves Grant is debatable, with a football director’s role rumoured to be lined up at Chelsea, he could unbelievably stroll into yet another lucrative contract. Grant’s secret is certainly beyond me, it’s certainly not his charisma or his ability, but as long as he’s nowhere near West Ham United next season, I’ll be a happier man, and so will 34,000 others.
