Grant Becomes Easy To Root For

It was easy to root against Avram Grant when he was at Chelsea.

He was left sitting in the manager's chair after Jose Mourinho departed, and Grant's sour facial expressions made him the polar opposite of Mourinho when it came to charisma.

After leading Chelsea to the UEFA Champions League final and to a 2nd place finish in the league, Grant was pushed out the door for larger names like Scolari and Hiddink.

Grant did land on his feet with Portsmouth, and despite having to fight through financial challenges and impending relegation during the 2009-10 season, he has been able to lead Pompey on an improbable FA Cup run to the Final.

Andrew Longmore of the Times writes of how the spirit of Grant's father helps the Portsmouth manager keep the FA Cup fairytale alive at Fratton Park after a season of misery.


THE last time Avram Grant took a team to Wembley, Chelsea lost in the final of the Carling Cup and the bitterness of the recriminations reflected a club not used to losing, least of all to Tottenham.

Grant can remember standing next to his father after the match, nursing his disappointment. As ever, Meir Granat was trying to think of something positive to say to his son. “You know,” said Meir finally, “there are worse things in life than losing a Cup final.”

Avram thought he knew what was coming next. His father had survived the Holocaust and Stalin’s death camps, but had never talked openly about his past, preferring always to dwell on the future. Grant braced himself for a rare moment of revelation.

"Just think,” said Meir gently, “you could have lost in the semi-final.”

Every possible indicator suggests that Grant will know all about defeat in a semi-final by the end of Sunday afternoon. Portsmouth fans have been billing this game as Pompey v Pompey rejects, but as the rejects include Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe and Nico Kranjcar as well as the manager, Harry Redknapp, and Pompey’s already rag-tag squad has been further hit by injury, the true interpretation of the balance of power is somewhat different.

While Tottenham are eyeing Liverpool’s birthright in the Champions League, averting oblivion is Portsmouth’s sole aim. Thankfully, in the FA Cup, form and class are not the whole story.

“On Sunday, I can promise only two things,” Grant says defiantly. “We will fight every inch of the way and we will try to play football. I don’t know how many players we will have but I promise you each one will come with their heart.”

The journey which began with Grant’s return to Portsmouth last October has taken on a much broader symbolism for the 54-year-old Israeli. Meir Granat died that same October, at the age of 82, and the struggle to absorb the loss of his father and mentor has become fused with the near impossible challenge that Grant has unwittingly taken on at Fratton Park.

“If I have given the fans here something to smile about, they’ve given me something to smile about too,” he says. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t remember my father. He was a very very special man, a survivor of the Holocaust who had to bury his mother and father and sister with his own hands. Yet he was always optimistic, always positive about everything.

“My wife and sister have said that maybe I am taking some of his spirit into this club, but I’ve not noticed it. He taught me many things without saying so much and maybe I can do the same here.

Instead, he has become a cult figure at Fratton Park, Uncle Avram, the architect of an extraordinary romp to the Cup semi-final and a more popular figure than Harry Redknapp, who won the Cup for Portsmouth just two years ago, before the accountants came to count the cost of the triumph.

The more you learn about Avram Grant, the more you can see that he is pretty easy to root for after all...