Filed under: Chelsea, West Ham, Premier League, Football
For a manager getting the sack, there is no good time or good place to hear the news. There are better times and better places than others, however, and just after a match at an away ground is plain disrespectful. Avram Grant and Carlo Ancelotti both deserved better.You can argue all you like - and please do; it is one of the great attractions of football - whether they deserved it. My own opinion is that Grant should have gone last January with grace and dignity all round if West Ham were to avoid relegation.
Ancelotti? He should have been allowed to see out the final year of his contract to discover whether Fernando Torres and David Luiz, with a few more changes to the squad, could bring that Champions League that the Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich so covets.
The owner pays the piper, however, and even if his regular changing of the manager may appear counter-productive from the outside, he does have a right to call the tune. Fans who also contribute so much revenue to the game also have a right to criticise.
Abramovich really should at least have done the deed himself, instead of leaving it to his chief executive Ron Gourlay, who allowed the honourable Ancelotti to give a press conference after the defeat at Everton before telling him his fate.
The owner could easily have met the Italian in London the next day and shook hands, thanking him personally for the Double of last season and telling him that it was nothing personal but he was looking for a change of direction.
At least the West Ham owners of David Gold and David Sullivan told Grant personally at Wigan the previous week. They could have done it, though, at the club's training ground so that he then had a chance to say goodbye to the club's staff with less embarrassment all round.
As a chairman once of a non-League club, I twice felt compelled to sack a manager. The first time came after the last home match of a season in which my club had finished 17th so that he could say his farewells. We then met again another day to negotiate his pay-off.
The second time - in an attempt to halt what was looking an inevitable relegation unless a change was made - was by phone due to distance, but I waited until the man was off the team coach before having the conversation to avoid embarrassment for him.
Neither manager liked me for it - probably they still don't - but at least I was trying to consider their feelings in doing what I thought was best for the club after consultation with a board of directors.
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The problem now for West Ham and Chelsea is that they have acted in a way that will make potential new managers think twice before considering for the jobs. Of course there will be plenty who will take on the challenge at both clubs, for there is always a mug in football, either willing to buy or manage a dysfunctional club because they reckon they can do better. And because the money will be so good.
The very best, though, may shy away, wondering if they need the grief. Martin O'Neill could already - twice - have had the West Ham job but has not bitten. At Chelsea, it would be Guus Hiddink's job if he wanted it, but his instinct is to see out his contract with Turkey, honour which Chelsea may struggle to purchase.
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/05/23/avram-grant-carlo-ancelotti-sacked-football/
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