So who is Avram Grant?

LAST FRIDAY, Avram Grant welcomed some friends who had come to watch Israel’s Euro 2008 qualifier against England to Chelsea’s newly-built training ground at Cobham.

He led them up to the second floor and to his fairly small corner office overlooking the training pitches. He was happy with his new role and comfortable with life in London: seven days on, Grant’s position, if not his office, has changed. This afternoon, he can expect an intense grilling as to his credentials when he faces the press as Chelsea’s new coach.

His first game in charge will be at Old Trafford, the ground where José Mourinho first came to the attention of an English audience with a victorious run along the touchline when Porto knocked Manchester United out of Europe.

“I don’t like to talk about myself, but one of the things I’m very proud of is that whenever I have left a team, they have always done well in the period after,” Grant said. “I always leave them in good shape.”

Grant was pleased with the protection he has got from Chelsea’s communications department, who turned down over 200 requests for interviews with the Israeli after he was appointed director of football. He did give one interview to Israeli TV, explaining how his work did not interfere with Mourinho’s at all. “I’ve been enjoying working with José but also with the rest of the group, it’s a very professional team,” he told Channel 5.

Even though Grant guided Israel through an unbeaten 2006 World Cup qualifying group and the best campaign since their only tournament appearance in 1970, he remains a polarising figure in his homeland: worryingly for Abramovich, FA bosses did not like his conservative style of football, fans were upset at how he ended the international career of Eyal Berkovic, and though he achieved club success with Hapoel Petah Tikvah, Maccabi Tel Aviv and then Maccabi Haifa, controversy was never far from the surface.

When Berkovic was dropped, he went public on his criticism of Grant. “99% of the players and the fans want me in the team but one person doesn’t and that drives me mad,” he said. “I can’t understand what’s in his mind.” Former Israel forward Pini Balili once accused Grant of favouring captain Avi Nimni and playmaker Yossi Benayoun, while former Israeli coach Shlomo Scharf has called him “a master-manipulator”.

His presence at a crisis meeting alongside Abramovich and other board members after the defeat to Aston Villa a fortnight ago — a result that begun a three-match winless run — does little to halt the feeling Grant is unhappy with his promotion.

Grant never made it as a professional player but taught himself to coach when he was 18. He made notes on teams and tactics, and collected information about his coaching heroes, Bob Paisley, Ernst Happel and then Pat Riley (LA Lakers coach). “Like me, Mourinho was never a professional player,” Grant once told me. The pair first met in 2004, and Mourinho said, “We are the same, two non-players who can coach!”

There is one obvious difference between the two men, though, and that is in their relationships with Abramovich: while Mourinho came close to resigning — and being sacked — last season, Grant is a trusted and respected adviser to the Russian.

Abramovich met Grant through Pini Zahavi in 2004, and he soon became a regular at Israel’s World Cup qualifying matches: he was at the goalless draw against France in Paris, and was seen visiting the dressing room after matches. Abramovich spent a week with Grant in Tel Aviv in February 2006 and, a few months later, helped Frank Arnesen set up a tie-up between Hapoel Tel Aviv and Chelsea that allowed Israel striker Ben Sahar to move to London.

Grant’s strength is in motivating his players, although Abramovich rates his coaching ability as well and at one stage last season wanted Grant to work specifically to improve the form of Andriy Shevchenko.

At the height of his success with the Israeli national team, Grant fronted conferences on leadership and how to handle pressure, to audiences that included IBM and Mossad.

Grant may need to use the lessons that he once preached if he is to avoid the fate of Claudio Ranieri.

The Italian was a popular figure at Stamford Bridge but deemed not good enough by Abramovich. And Ranieri’s first match in charge? Against Manchester United, at Old Trafford, on September 23, the same date as Sunday’s match.

Although Grant’s promotion raised eyebrows in England and Israel, he has garnered some support in his homeland. His childhood friend and fellow Israeli coach Eyal Lachmann, who led Arab side Bnei Sakhnin into the Uefa Cup two years ago, has no doubt Grant will succeed at Chelsea.

“I knew he was made of tough stuff from an early age, when he used to go to coaching seminars and the trip would cost more than his salary as a youth coach,” said Lachmann. “But it has been worth it: he is now one of the finest minds in European football.”

Grant’s first task will be to convince the Chelsea players that’s the case.