Avram Grant believes that pressure is a good thing for a football manager to be under at a club and it shouldn’t be viewed upon as a negative at all. The Partizan Belgrade boss believes that talk of life being difficult under Roman Abramovich is unfounded and the pressure at Chelsea is a good one; given you have the best facilities and resources to work from:

“Everybody speaks about the pressure of working at Chelsea, but it is a good pressure. This is better than any other pressure. I am now in Serbia, and there is pressure to do good things. There is always pressure to be the best, but that has to be there. At Chelsea, you get everything to be the best; great players and great facilities. The owner wanted the best for the club. We are not living in a perfect world. I enjoy working under pressure. I came to Chelsea with the long-term programme to be the best. Unfortunately, the job was cut in the middle, but I enjoyed it. Everybody looks at pressure being a negative thing, but it is not negative.”

The Israeli revealed also looks back at his time as Chelsea boss with great fondness and how close he actually came to landing the much coveted Champions League trophy for Roman Abramovich.

“I’m not arrogant, but when I look back I think that was the best season for Chelsea in recent years in terms of the way the side played. They played great football, and showed great character. One of the strengths of this team was how we recovered from a poor start to the season. We were struggling a bit when I took over, but we beat all the big teams such as Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. We played the best football in the league and almost became champions of England and champions of Europe. I am proud of that season, and how we played.”

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