Source: Telegraph
Avram Grant leaves with pride after Portsmouth FA Cup defeat to Chelsea
A 50-foot-high rendering of Grant's oddly mournful face ran down the side of the scoreboard: a testament to his giant accomplishment of restoring a bankrupt club to the promise and happiness of FA Cup final day. [LNB]The banners unfurled across Wembley's East Stand — 'Against all odds', 'You'll never break our spirit', 'PFC: Proven football club' — merely sharpened that impression. Rarely has 'Abide with Me' had such a resonant rendition.[LNB] Related ArticlesChelsea 1 Portsmouth 0Carlo Ancelotti proves he is special, tooJohn Terry hails Chelsea victory in FA Cup finalChelsea-Portsmouth: player ratingsDouble joy for ChelseaWembley pitch farce resurfacesChelsea v Portsmouth: as it happenedChelsea's final act of passion playAnelka slams Grant in new bookChelsea v Portsmouth previewGrant's talents of leadership, in the eyes of Portsmouth's devoted disciples, rival those of President Obama. He has acquired the most peculiar cult of personality. [LNB]The ring of flames that shot up around the Wembley pitch before kick-off formed an entrance worthy of him given all the indignities he has endured, and surmounted, on the South Coast.[LNB]But then, as Grant has seldom tired of saying in these grim days of administration: 'Football is all about love.' It is about the love he feels from supporters grateful for his revival of a lost commodity at Fratton Park: pride. [LNB]It is about the love he believed was his due, but which never materialised, at Chelsea, where he performed similarly wondrous feats in reaching a Champions League final and losing just one league game, only to be dumped without ceremony. [LNB]As Didier Drogba showed, with a second-half free-kick every bit as majestic as Kevin-Prince Boateng's penalty was hopeless, the club continue to haunt him.[LNB]Roman Abramovich, the man who cut him adrift, gazed down from his corporate gantry at the curious spectacle of Grant's return to prominence. [LNB]The Chelsea owner had deduced that his understated Israeli manager was ill-equipped to be more than a stopgap solution at Stamford Bridge and yet the Portsmouth story suggests such a decision was premature. [LNB]Grant, displaying an enterprise to belie his bluff exterior, has encouraged his latest crop of players to follow their natural instincts on the pitch and all but single-handedly bolstered their morale off it.[LNB]It seems there is nothing like not being paid to unite a dressing room.[LNB]Grant's weekly wage has been so derisory of late that he has openly wondered whether Andrew Andronikou, the Portsmouth administrator, was confusing him with the kit man. [LNB]A remarkable resilience to hardship, instilled by his beloved late father, the Holocaust survivor Meir, has shown up the best in his work. [LNB]Those qualities have not suddenly been discovered; they also surfaced at Chelsea, in Grant's scrupulous shepherding of Frank Lampard, dealing with the torment of losing his mother.[LNB]Lampard, in his final training session before the second leg of a Champions League semi-final against Liverpool, was a shell of his normal self, scoring own goals and betraying his distraction all too plainly. [LNB]Grant, astutely, said not a word, at least not until the day of the game, when he told the midfielder to prepare to play. No prizes for guessing who scored the winning penalty.[LNB]How Lampard, with the rarest of misses from the spot in Chelsea's win, needed his old mentor yesterday. For there were intimations that Grant could work a miraculous touch here, too. [LNB]For an hour Portsmouth had a monopoly on luck, as Salomon Kalou contrived a witless miss with the goal gaping, while another Drogba dead-ball special hit bar, post and goal-line without going in. During all that time, Grant did not stir. He came into the technical area only when his team were behind and only then to observe — touchline oratory has never been his great strength.[LNB]As Grant mounted the steps to receive the consoling words of England head coach Fabio Capello and Prince William, the Football Association chairman, tearful fans reached out to shake his hand. [LNB]Most affecting, though, was his lingering embrace with Daniel, his 16 year-old son, who would have understood better than any how much the past year has strained him.[LNB]'In this season we have had many problems, so being here is the main story of English football, I think', Grant said, in a summation with which few could disagree.[LNB]'I'm very proud to be here in front of these fans. I shall never forget it.' His achievements, of course, cannot last in Portsmouth's parlous state.[LNB]As the club confront life in the Championship, his side will be dismantled brutally this summer in the game's equivalent of a car-boot sale. No wonder Ricardo Rocha was in tears; soon enough this Portuguese centre-back, too expensive at £20,000 a week, would be packed off to one of the European league's more obscure backwaters.[LNB]Portsmouth had enjoyed their day in the sun, but the postscript was bleak. Grant professed to be proud but as he walked out of the stadium, leaving his colleagues to an uncertain fate, he still had his undertaker's face on.[LNB]Nearly man: Avram Grant's extensive runners-up medal collection. [LNB]Champions League: 1Premier League: 1FA Cup: 1Carling Cup: 1Israeli Premier League: 6Israeli Cup: 5Israeli Toto Cup: 3
