Grant's wife says English media target her husband
JERUSALEM: Chelsea coach Avram Grant's wife Tsofit has accused the English media of being "hungry for the raw flesh" of her husband in an Israeli television interview aired on Wednesday minutes before the Champions League final.
Grant, who took the helm at Chelsea last September from the flamboyant Jose Mourinho, has defied expectations and his critics, who said his appointment was a stop-gap measure and that he would fail and soon be replaced.
The former Israel coach took Chelsea to within a whisker of winning this year's Premier League title and also led the club to its most important match - the Champions League final against Manchester United in Moscow.
"It was clear to me all the time that he was going to win ... not (so much on the pitch as off it)," Tsofit Grant said in an interview recorded some two weeks ago, excerpts of which were shown for the first time on Israel's Channel 10 on Wednesday.
"It was clear that we would mainly go out to beat the media, the guillotine people, bloodthirsty and hungry for raw flesh. That is how I see the media."
She added that to keep focused and avoid getting upset, the Grants rarely read newspapers and she accused some English media of trying to get her husband fired.
"Our system is hardly to read the papers ... despite the results and the victories you could see how a man was turned into a target in order to demoralize, to bring about a dismissal, in order to kill (his career)," she said.
But Tsofit, who said in another interview on Wednesday evening from Red Square that she was "thrilled" to be in Moscow, said her husband's lethargic demeanor was his way of conveying his inner strength.
"He deals with (criticism) the way you see him. What you see is what there is - calmness, restraint, strength - this is the man," she said.
Agencies
(China Daily 05/23/2008 page24)
