Soccer / English League / Grant's sob stories leave Chelsea clammy
By Shaul Adar
After months of only holding press conferences, Avram Grant decided to change tactics and, for the first time since his arrival in England and appointment as Chelsea manager, gave a joint interview to a number of reporters over a long dinner.
Still, his maneuver went awry. "You heared about Grant's interview?" a journalist asked a colleague in the club's press room. "Grant spoke about his Holocaust survivor father, a friend killed in the Yom Kippur War, and bereaved parents who came to see the match against Arsenal. Besides a kid with cancer, that interview had it all."
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His colleague replied: "He also mentioned the assassination of [former prime minister Yitzhak] Rabin and an Israeli killed in 9/11. Football, however, was hardly ever mentioned."
Blame the journalists for sarcasm, but the supporters were not convinced by Grant's apologia, even after Chelsea's victory over Arsenal. How heartless English fans must be, if they can resist imbibing Grant's Holocaust-terrorism-Rabin-slaying cocktail.
Meanwhile, Chelsea's match on Sunday was low on soccer and high on emotion, as too many of its matches have been this season. After an indolent first half during which Chelsea scored after, yet again, a ball was lobbed up field, Middlesbrough came back to life.
"We paid them respect in the first half and started to play in the second," Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate said. He repeated a lesson already learned by Barnsley, Tottenham and Aston Villa: Teams that respect Chelsea will be torn apart, but those who come to put up a fight should lob the ball into penalty area, where defender John Terry is not what he used to be. Middlesbrough hit the post and crossbar three times; twice more they squandered great chances to score. In the stands, some spectators were caught snoozing in the warm spring sun just before the Middlesbrough onslaught began; they were awakened with a jolt.
"You don't know what you're doing," the supporters shouted at Grant while ignoring an assortment of 20th-century tragedies - not to mention Grant's Toto Cup record. For months they have witnessed Chelsea struggle with high balls and nothing has changed. What have they been doing during training?
On the way out, some supporters stopped to speak to journalists. They did not sound enthused. "That was rubbish," one said. "Attractive football? What's he on about?" And no pithy interview will change their opinion, nor will such victories.
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