Abramovich does it the Russian way

SOCCER: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 his farewells to the players with whom he won back-to-back Premier League titles, an FA Cup and two League Cups. He then left to have lunch with his staff, before going to Stamford Bridge to discuss severance terms.

The BBC were reporting on their website that the deal could be worth €35 million.

Thirty-two months remained of his contract, worth about £13 million, but if the statement that announced his departure is any indication, Mourinho is unlamented. "Chelsea and Jose Mourinho have agreed to part company today (Thursday) by mutual consent" was the club's terse announcement. It was not until after 5pm, having announced that Grant and Clarke "have our full confidence and support", that Chelsea expressed something approaching gratitude to Mourinho.

"We also must pay tribute to the great job Jose did for Chelsea," said the club 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. He had been approached in 2004 as a potential replacement for Claudio Ranieri, after his Monaco team knocked Chelsea out of the Champions League, and again in January when he was manager of Juventus. "I am interested in the Chelsea job," he said. "If you know a coach who's not interested in going to a club like Chelsea, show me him."