Tuesday, September 25, 2007

CHELSEA insiders believe that Jose Mourinho engineered his own sacking. The ex-Blues boss had a clause in his deal which said he had to pay the club £2.5million if he quit. Members of the board believe that Mourinho feared he would lose against Manchester United and at Valencia in the Champions League without Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.

A boardroom source said: “Jose met with Roman and Peter Kenyon. Roman expressed concerns about the display against Rosenborg. He was not impressed by the way the team was playing.

“There was no indication things had come to an end but Jose went to see Peter to say he would not be coming to work the next day. Peter asked him what he meant and he said I’m just not coming in. Peter thought about it then asked Jose ‘Do you mean you want to leave?’

“Jose suggested he would go and Chelsea then told him they would pay him off.”

GRANT was branded “disgusting” in a vicious attack on the new Chelsea boss.

Eyal Berkovic, whose international career was ended by Grant when he was Israel manager, pulled no punches in a personal tirade.He cannot forgive Chelsea or Grant for the way Jose Mourinho was ousted. Berkovic said: “I think the way Chelsea gave the job to Grant was disgusting and disrespectful. Mostly it is a story with a known end from the very beginning.

“Chelsea have undermined the greatest manager of all time the one all Chelsea fans admired with craziness and the most charismatic man in the football world.We are all familiar and know who Mr Grant is. Sometimes you need to act selfishly in a way.There is no need to be a great manager in order to become successful with a team like Chelsea.“You have got money, good players and everything you want. All you have to be is a very good psychologist.”

Berkovic, 35, added: “I have a feeling Grant will be successful. He will always be remembered as the man who pushed away Jose Mourinho.It doesn’t matter how many hours he spent on the phone talking to Roman and the closest people to him. As for Chelsea players, I can understand their feelings. I was a player myself. It doesn’t feel normal suddenly to have a coach you knew as Abramovich’s friend replacing one of the best managers in the world.This is far from being a professional act and it’s really hard to understand.