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CHELSEA FC: AVRAM ON THE FRONT FOOT

/noticias.info/ With Chelsea intending to react to the Carling Cup defeat with spirit and determination, Avram Grant has led the way with an attack on media coverage of the club in the past week.

Though admitting the team's performance against Spurs was hugely disappointing and there are some crucial games ahead, the Chelsea manager has defended his record strongly and told the press: 'Wait with the knife a little bit and I will respect you more.

'From my heart, I have respected all the media in England very much although even when I came, they didn't give me any credit.

'They didn't behave so nicely, they took it too far instead of waiting two months but I didn't say anything. But since then, I have heard a lot of lies.

'I don't think because we lost one game, the media need to lose their integrity and create stories that didn't happen. Reporters need to respect their profession as much as I respect them.'

Grant highlighted a problem with football agents as a source of inaccurate stories.

'I agree with Alex Ferguson - the agents came to football to make things easier for clubs and players because it is not easy sometimes to negotiate with players.

'But sometimes they leak things to the papers that they don't need to leak - but it is the papers' problem because they don't check the facts. We saw that this week - 95 per cent of the stories never happened - and I don't think it is because journalists create a lie.

'It isn't because of the journalists we lost the game against Tottenham but the papers need to check the facts and not what the agents told them.

'When I came, I understood the reaction but I didn't agree with it because if a new player comes to my team, I give him one or two months to show me what he can do.

'But this is the traditional welcome in England so I respected the media but now, a few of them I don't respect so much.

'They lost integrity and lost proportion because we lost one game.

'If they want to say anything about the game and that we didn't play so well, I will not say anything against this. But they took it too far and I don't like it because it hurt my players and this is not the right way.'

Grant was clear he was not denying stories about an argument between John Terry and Henk ten Cate on the eve of the Wembley game but played down the significance, insisting the reporting was still overblown.

'They had some discussions between them, they moved on. One minute later they shook hands, hugged and there is not a team in the world that has not seen some fighting.

'There is not a problem with any relationships in the club. This is the reason we won a lot of games because everyone is together.'

Grant also defended Chelsea against accusations that we struggle to win the big games, pointing out that had the side lost against Liverpool in the Carling Cup quarter-final or Everton in the semi-final, they would have been called big games.

With no injury problems ahead of tomorrow's visit to West Ham, he has declared his intention to come out fighting in the right way.

'I take responsibility for everything I decide and we won 24 of 35 games.

'The spirit is very good. We lost one game last weekend, we are very sorry, especially for the supporters because I saw when we won against Tottenham in the league what it means to them.

'Nothing happened different last game than before. The one thing that was different was that we lost.

'What I want to see is what I saw in the last five months. We have shown a lot of character and I want the players to play how they played in 95 per cent of the games.' notas_de_prensa_archivo