Why Chelsea boss Avram Grant is looking to the stars for inspiration
Avram Grant is trying to burst from obscurity to immortality, but he may not be steering the rocket. The Chelsea manager will add this to his pile of grievances, but many think his most senior stars are at the controls.
To call it a player revolt would be simplistic. But soundings in the game support a belief that John Terry, Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and other Chelsea aristocrats could see their year collapsing and decided it was time to act.
Plenty to ponder: Grant's future is uncertain
That meant Ballack playing the best football of his two seasons at Stamford Bridge, Lampard ploughing on through family grief and Terry turning an ambulance round and speeding back to the Bolton match after dislocating his elbow.
Privately, Grant is said to be discussing a return to his old role as director of football. The party line is that he's still in command of a squad of unusually strong-willed players.
Yet there is strong visual and anecdotal evidence that the NCOs at the Cobham training ground shaped the doomed campaign to dislodge Manchester United at the top of the Barclays Premier League, and pulled together to send Jose Mourinho's old gang to Moscow.
Grant has seized every opportunity to advertise his record since taking over from Mourinho before the 2-0 loss to United in September: a tactic that obscures their defeat by Spurs in the Carling Cup final, their sixth-round FA Cup exit at Barnsley and the home draws with Wigan and Bolton in their last five games in the League.
The closer he came to May's denouements, the more Grant defended his achievements, as if to scrutinise his 53 games in charge was heresy, a form of ignorance trampling on the facts.
But the game's sages see a different story. They think Grant did a fine job of stabilising a rebellious dressing room after Mourinho's departure, but made only minor adjustments to the starting line-up and tactics. Re-assimilating Joe Cole was the most obvious example: a move bound to find favour with Cole's pals, Terry and Lampard.
Since then, the theory goes, the most distinguished regulars have noted Grant's inexperience, his inability to change the direction of tight games, his lack of skill with substitutions, compared to Mourinho, who was master of the electronic numbers board.
Mourinho is Grant's curse, the backdrop to all he does. With Jose, a kind of emotional dialogue crackled between bench and pitch.
With his theatrical pitchside prowlings, wild gesticulations and stern expressions, Mourinho asserted his authority through sheer force of personality as well as wisdom. The players could be sure his interventions would be correct.
Not so Grant. His relationship with the players lacks the two prime requirements of long reigns: warmth and fear. He is neither the team's master nor their friend.
His No 2, Henk ten Cate, is a shouter and row-starter. No one at Stamford Bridge could easily recall a long tactical exchange or warm two-way between Ten Cate and any Chelsea's players, who appear to regard him as an especially persistent noise.
Steve Clarke, a survivor from the Mourinho era, is on stronger ground, but Didier Drogba is allowed to berate him in front of Grant. The bench has the appearance of three men randomly thrown together to wait for a bus.
Those players, meanwhile, see Roman Abramovich's long absences, read the constant speculation about Grant's future and hear Chelsea fans vilifying their manager from the crowd. It would be a miracle, in those circumstances, if they considered themselves employees of a politically stable club.
Grant's attempts to blame media conspiracies are running out of gas. This week he admitted: "If the club are happy with me, no problem. If I'm not happy with the club and I want to leave, I don't think they will make any problems either."
In other words, Avram Grant was probably a transitional figure after Mourinho's charisma-overload. Abramovich couldn't control the last manager so he hired a friend to be subservient.
Given their high standing in the game, it would be a shock if Terry, Ballack and Lampard chose passivity in the face of all this instability.
If this is the tale within the tale of Chelsea's first Champions League Final, those players will earn our admiration for keeping their mouths shut and their sense of professional duty fully engaged.
