Abramovich takes hands-on role

· Owner to be 'more aware' of team as Grant takes over
· Mourinho speaks of his 'never-ending love story'

Matt Scott and David Hytner
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian

Roman Abramovich will take a more active role in team affairs after the departure from Chelsea of Jose Mourinho, according to a source close to the Russian. Avram Grant, the former Israel manager, yesterday led his first training session since taking charge of the first team. He will face Manchester United on Sunday and has been told it is his job to lose.

Abramovich will entrust his team to Grant and Steve Clarke, who remains assistant manager. The billionaire was in Cobham yesterday with his lieutenant Eugene Tenenbaum to congratulate Grant on his promotion from director of football. In contrast to Mourinho, Grant will be willing to accommodate the owner's demands - the first being to produce attractive football. "[Abramovich] won't pick the team but he will be more aware of the team [than under Mourinho]," said the source. "It is the Russian way: they like to be the boss when they are paying for things.

"Mourinho made mistakes but at the beginning of the season everything was very bright. The personal relationship between Abramovich and Mourinho looked very positive. Everyone was happy but then they lost games, and results and performances, when he had promised to change the system for much more entertaining football, changed that."

Friends say Mourinho intends to remain in London for the next two to three weeks before returning to Portugal with his family. "I am going to enjoy my life," he said. "And wait for phone calls. I want to work."

He visited the training ground yesterday to say farewell to the players with whom he won back-to-back Premier League titles, an FA Cup and two Carling Cups. He then left to have lunch with his staff, Rui Faria, Andre Villas Boas and Silvino Louro, before going to Stamford Bridge to agree severance terms last night.

Thirty-two months remained of his contract, worth about £13m, and later he issued a statement saying: "I am very proud of my work in Chelsea Football Club and I think my decision in May 2004 to come to England was an excellent one. It was a beautiful and rich period of my career. I want to thank all Chelsea FC supporters for what I believe is a never-ending love story. I wish great success to the club, a club that will be forever connected to me for some historical moments."

After an evening of negotiations Chelsea released a statement confirming that a deal had been struck, although no details were revealed. "Chelsea . . . has reached agreement on all contractual arrangements with Jose Mourinho," it read.

Earlier the club had stated: "Chelsea and Jose Mourinho have agreed to part company today [Thursday] by mutual consent". It was not until after 5pm, having announced that Grant and Clarke "have our full confidence and support", that the club expressed something approaching gratitude to Mourinho.

"We also must pay tribute to the great job Jose did for Chelsea," they said in an open letter to fans. "He has been the most successful manager the club has known and he rightly deserves that place in our history. Jose did not resign and he was not sacked. What is clear, though, is we had all reached a point where the relationship between the club and Jose had broken down. This was despite genuine attempts over several months by all parties to resolve certain differences. The reason the decision has been taken is that we believed the breakdown started to impact on the performance of the team."

Although Grant is the incumbent, there will be others itching to take over if results do not improve. Didier Deschamps was the first to declare his availability. "I am interested," he said. "If you know a coach who's not interested in going to a club like Chelsea, show me him."