…So says Craig Burley, who reckons that Derby boss Billy Davies could have done just as well as Avram Grant has. To be honest, Burley does have a point. Grant seems to have taken a page out of the Steve McClaren book of management; claiming you are going to make sweeping revolutionary changes, and then not really changing anything and doing it in a slightly worse manner than your predecessor.
Witness McClaren’s ‘revolutionary’ start, dropping Becks, bringing in Heskey and Barry – and then look at his demise, falling back on Sven’s security blanket of David Beckham and bringing back useless coupling Gerrard and Lampard. Grant seems to have done exactly the same at Chelsea, starting off with some big talk, and then after a while just mirroring Mourinho’s tactics. And Burley, a former player with both Derby and Chelsea, reckons Billy Davies could be given the Stamford Bridge throne and would do just as well as Grant.
“I don’t think Grant has done anything special to improve Chelsea. The players have just responded to Jose Mourinho’s departure and they have started performing. I think if you had put Billy Davies in charge of this Chelsea side they would have got a good run of results.”
And Burley didn’t stop there. He reckons soporific Grant will be booted out for his boring ways before too long. He continued:
“I don’t see him being there in the long term. Grant hasn’t got much personality. Eventually, the fans will want to see a bigger name like Hiddink or Rijkaard in charge and he’ll be off.”
So Burley thinks pretty much anyone could take the reigns at Chelsea and do well. How about Steve McClaren?