Avram Grant expected to make immediate impact with Ghana

If there’s one thing Avram Grant is used to, then it’s a demanding boss. John Terry’s slip while taking a penalty in the 2008 Champions League final shoot-out in Moscow effectively cost him his job as Chelsea coach.

Having been one of many managers hired and fired by Blues backer Roman Abramovich, newly-appointed Grant is charged with taking Ghana as far as he can at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.

The Black Stars hierarchy have been frank with their new team boss, named just six weeks prior to the continental competition kicking off. “It would be unfair to ask a coach appointed [around] only one month before a tournament to win a trophy,” said Ghanaian FA president Kewsi Nyantekyie.

“But he must do well and then the FA will assess his performance after the Nations Cup and determine whether he has or not.” There’s gratitude for stepping in at the 11th hour for you.

And yet, the Black Stars should always be making the business end of tournaments, because they have a number of players plying their trade in top European leagues, or that are proven in them, but now elsewhere.

Skipper and record scorer Asamoah Gyan continues to enjoy big pay-days in the Gulf region with United Arab Emirates outfit Al-Ain, where he has netted more than a goal per game. It’s often forgotten that only Steven Fletcher has achieved double figures for Premier League strikes over a season in a Sunderland shirt since.

This motivation to play professional sport is probably the wrong reason, which is no better evidenced than by the behaviour of this country and other African nations’ big names in regard to World Cup bonuses.

We had everything from squads refusing to board the plane bound for Brazil to reported fights between players and officials. Two of those that are alleged to have been involved in unsavoury spats are Sulley Muntari and another former Portsmouth player, though from Grant’s stint in charge at Fratton Park, Kevin-Prince Boateng.

Such disputes have left this key midfield pair in disgrace. Boateng, in particular, will be a miss for Grant, as the player was an important cog of his struggling, cash-strapped Pompey side, which defied all odds to reach the FA Cup final in 2010.