Avram Grant fast running out of time as his team take on Manchester City in crunch game
Time, chances, players and ultimately games are running out for Avram Grant and West Ham and now their season could hinge on a result against European football’s juggernaut-in-waiting.
Downbeat: Avram Grant is not optimistic about his side's chances against Manchester City Photo: REUTERS
By Wally Downes 8:43PM BST 30 Apr 2011
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With the Premier League’s nouveau riche, Manchester City, Sunday’s eager hosts, there is no time to debate whether it is the crippling weight of expectation from ever-loyal fans or a definitive lack of quality that ties West Ham United to the bottom of the table, three points from safety with just four games remaining.
Football writers’ footballer of the year Scott Parker and fellow midfield enforcer Mark Noble are injured, along with January signing Gary O’Neil, and wayne bridge, on loan from Eastlands, is ineligible to face his parent club so unwavering optimism is the only thing that keeps most chins up at the bottom three club.
Although it seems finally to be abandoning the manager with the permanent hang-dog expression. “I will be honest with you,” Grant said. “If we played Manchester City 10 times we would not win seven but we would not lose all of them — this is how we need to think about football.
“City have big players and they have spent so much money to build the level of team they want so it will be difficult to compete with them.
“City have no players that are much better than the others. If you look at the squad last week they had players not even in the squad that could get into any Premier League team.”
Grant’s collection of loanees, youth-team products and relative unknowns have long been labelled the side ‘too good to go down’ but injuries have ravaged his side once again and even consulting with his players has not helped their plight.
Misfiring forwards, contract rebels and the unsettling rumours regarding the 56 year-old’s job security that emanate from far too close to home, could have left the former-Portsmouth manager laying the blame with those whose opinions he so honestly respects.
But he said: “For me it is very interesting to hear different opinions from my staff and my players.
“I believe the relationship today cannot be what it was 20 years ago when nobody spoke to anyone.
“But there is only one man that can make the decision and there is only one man that you come to the pressroom and blame but that is fine by me.”
Grant’s open invitation to level all vitriol at him may be admirable, but should form stay true — and the team bottom at Christmas drops out of the top-flight — there might not be many players left around to share the burden anyway.
Captain Matthew Upson is out of contract in the summer and, with the silence surrounding a possible extension to his stay deafening, he will surely escape the backlash when an alternative club seeks out his services.
The handful of players that have been drafted in on loan will also depart but one may leave with a parting gift.
Victor Obinna has been lent to the relegation threatened side from the dizzying heights of Serie A and the Champions League courtesy of Inter Milan and it is those links to the San Siro that add a touch of personal incentive today.
Roberto Mancini managed Obinna and City firebrand Mario Balotelli before the trio decamped to England and the unruly temperament of the £25 million striker could be one of the few weaknesses in the FA Cup finalists’ squad.
“Mario is a very good friend of mine,” 24-year-old Obinna said. “When I was at Inter we would stay together. He is a very interesting lad and he does some funny things but I think he is a good kid.
“He should be given a little bit of time to adapt, yes sometimes he does some crazy things but he is spontaneous. When he does things he doesn’t think sometimes. I used to tell him off all the time. He used to say ‘I know brother, I know’.”
But despite providing a calming and authoritative figure to Balotelli in their early years, the Nigerian, who is reluctant to discuss his future at the club, plans to agitate his friend for the sake of his current team-mates.
“I won’t give Balotelli a chance, he knows that,” Obinna added. “He’s knows I’m going to unsettle him. Before the game we will talk and after the game we will talk.”
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