Chelsea FC have to win the Premiership or the Champions League. Failure in any of the two will cost Avram Grant his job at Stamford Bridge.

The Israeli manager sure does know about it after his lads performance in the crucial Cup matches. Firstly, the Blues lost the Carling Cup final after a poor display against Tottenham at Wembley (1:2). Two weeks later, they were eliminated in the FA Cup quaterfinals by a poor but in-form side from Championship - Barnsley.

Admittedly Roman Abramovich wasn’t at the Oakwell stadium and he hadn’t seen the defeat, but some sources inform that he was disgusted with the result. The loss with Barnsley was very painful for Chelsea fans, especially after Manchester United lost the battle against Portsmouth. Automatically, “The Blues” should have been named as the best team to stay in the competition. When Grant was leaving the bench after the final whistle, the crowd from London was singing “Jose Mourinho, Jose Mourinho”. Many of them had believed that the Israeli left Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba in London. They both were complaining about small injuries, and had they been there, the performance of the team would have been better. Lampard is in a rich vein of form now and he’s showing it in the last few games in Premiership.

Grant said after the loss against Barnsley: “This is the worst day I’ve had since I joined Chelsea. It was not a pitch we could play good football on but I need to congratulate Barnsley for playing very well and showing great spirit. We had a chance to win the FA Cup regardless of what happened elsewhere. It’s hugely disappointing.”

Nicolas Anelka who replaced Drogba against Barnsley said: “The criticism must be about the players because we didn’t play well and we have to accept the fact. We know the media will be after the manager but you know as players when you play well and we didn’t.”

This season’s goal for Chelsea is to win the Champions League, but even with Jose Mourinho they didn’t succeed. It was the time when “The Blues” were dominating in the Premiership. Now, they are in the worst place and their situation is really difficult. Chelsea are on third place in Premier League with only illusive chances to finish ahead of Arsenal and Manchester United.

The Israeli coach doesn’t have much support from his assistant. His closest contributor is the Dutchman Henk Ten Cate, well-known from his explosive character. Former Frank Rijkaard’s assistant in Barcelona has come to Stamford Bridge as a man, who can hold the spoilt stars to focus only on the football. Ten Cate even had a conflict with skipper John Terry during one of the trainings, when both men tried to attack each other.

However, despite all that, there wasn’t any journalist, but the news was posted in the press. Ten Cate told “De Telegraaf” that Chelsea players wanted to dis-credit him, so they informed the press about the event. As a result of his interview, the bosses from Stamford Bridge were very disappointed, because they didn’t admit him to talk with the press, especially from his country.

Grant has not got the confidence he expects from Ten Cate too. He wants to add to the staff his countrymen Eyal Lachman and Ronny Levy. Eyal works in Ghanian Hearts of Oak and Levy is Maccabi Haifa’s employee. This sort of maneuvering is not pleasantly accepted by the Danish-Dutch fraction in Chelsea. Of course, Frank Arnesen and Piet de Visser are an integral part of it. Arnesen is the chief of young players, while de Visser is unofficial, the man behind the club scouts. The Danish can come up with the possible replacement for Grant. It’s his countryman Michael Laudrup, who is Spanish side Getafe’s manager. Despite the small budget, the club from Madrid is doing very well in La Liga and in UEFA Cup. Laudrup’s assistent is former Arsenal midifilder John Jansen, a person who knows Premiership wery well. So, it wouldn’t be surprising of Laudrup joins Chelsea sooner or later.