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| Avram Grant |
London: Chelsea sacked their manager Avram Grant on Saturday, three days after his team were beaten on penalties in the Champions League final by Ferguson’s Manchester United.
“Chelsea Football Club can confirm that Grant has had his contract as manager terminated on Saturday. This follows meetings over the last two days,” Chelsea said in an official statement on their website.
“Everybody at Chelsea FC would like to thank Avram for his contribution since taking over as manager last September.
We will now be concentrating all our efforts on identifying a new manager for Chelsea and there will be no further comment until that appointment is made.”
Among those linked with the job have been Frank Rijkaard, who has left Barcelona, and Roberto Mancini, who has just coached Inter Milan to the Serie A title in Italy.
Former England manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, whose future at Manchester City is uncertain, has also been mentioned in the past with a possible move to Stamford Bridge as has the Dutchman Guus Hiddink, who is in charge of the Russian team.
British bookmakers William Hill make Hiddink 11/4 favourite to succeed Grant at Stamford Bridge while Dutch compatriot Rijkaard leads the betting odds at 2/1 with Ladbrokes.
The 53-year-old Grant, a close personal friend of Chelsea’s Russian billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich, took charge of the team affairs in September after Jose Mourinho left the club.
The Israeli has now followed Mourinho out of the Stamford Bridge exit door.
It also comes as no surprise with his future in doubt almost from the time he took over as coach from Mourinho in September.
But Chelsea lost only five matches under Grant and reached the Champions League final for the first time, an achievement that was beyond Mourinho during his three seasons in charge.
They also went into the final league match of the season, level on points with Manchester United and could have won the title if they had bettered United’s result on the final day.
(Reuters) | 
