SOCCER:The shock was always going to be severe when anyone dared to occupy the chair vacated by Jose Mourinho, but Avram Grant seemed determined to emphasise the contrast.

"I am a normal person," said the successor to the "special one" who was Chelsea's manager until Thursday. "There are seven billion people in the world and no two are the same."

Grant has cause to seek a low profile, even if he was bold enough to say he believed he could make Chelsea better. He has no wish to have anyone regard him as a usurper of Mourinho's post who had sidled into place by becoming director of football this season. There was even a claim from him that he and the Portuguese had enjoyed a "very good", if brief, professional relationship.

Grant has a mature appreciation of the sensitivities of football and showed a shrewd delicacy while recognising the emotional displays of Chelsea fans aghast at the loss of Mourinho. "It touched my heart how the supporters reacted when Jose left," he said. "The supporters were here before Jose and they will stay after I leave."

Such tact gave a glimpse of the talents that won him his reputation as a skilful fashioner of relationships, even if he would not discuss his friendship with Roman Abramovich, other than to recall that he was on holiday in Phuket when the Chelsea owner called to offer the same post at Stamford Bridge he had held at Portsmouth.

Schmoozing the sceptical inhabitants of a dressingroom will nonetheless be a challenge. Even if the reports of unrest are untrue, can the occupants of the dressingroom listen to him? Mourinho, after all, won the Champions League with Porto and felt aggrieved to be denied in two semi-finals with Chelsea.

The furthest Grant has gone in that tournament was the six fixtures of the group phase with Maccabi Haifa. He likes to emphasise the many trips he used to make to study the methods of clubs in England, yet an event such as tomorrow's trip to Old Trafford is wholly new territory.

He mentioned his unbeaten record with Israel in qualification for the 2006 World Cup, in a group that included France, but the Chelsea squad must still have reservations.

"I like it that the players had a good relationship with Jose," he said of the attempt to establish his own identity at Stamford Bridge. "It wouldn't be normal if they didn't."

Grant, saying he had been shaken by the speed of events, joked that he had forgotten about the Manchester United fixture tomorrow. There is little time to school the side for that and he will not work with them today because it is Yom Kippur.

"It is not easy to build your philosophy in one day," he observed.

His view of football is a key topic, considering that Mourinho's utilitarian approach so vexed Abramovich. Grant was not known for any aesthetic priority with Israel, but that may have reflected the limitations of the squad.

"If we play good football it will bring a lot of wins," he said.

His situation is a fragile one, unless Abramovich's support for him is enduring, if not irrevocable.

The new manager did not seem to be feigning a certain shock about events and he was adamant that there had never been any suggestion that he would take over from Mourinho when he was headhunted as Chelsea's director of football.

There is much that remains to be established. No clues were on offer, for instance, about Abramovich reopening the financial valves that were latterly closed, by permitting a gush of spending during the next transfer window. The club did what they could for Grant yesterday by insisting that there had been no talks with Guus Hiddink about the Russia coach being the true inheritor of Mourinho's post in due course.

Grant has his opportunity, without knowing how long it will last. The club, having acted as they did, were obliged to argue that there could be progress from the Mourinho era. That would entail, presumably, winning the Champions League in the medium term and regaining the Premier League this season.

The make-up of the team will be intriguing. There was no hesitation from Grant in declaring his regard for Andriy Shevchenko, the forward who displeased Mourinho so markedly. He will have to be better integrated in future. Tomorrow he will surely feature because Chelsea have the injuries to Didier Drogba and others to bedevil them.

Grant remembered the "Arsene Who" headline that greeted Arsenal's appointment of Wenger in 1996 and recalled that Fabio Capello was once the lowly youth coach at Milan. Those individuals went on to accomplish wonders.

No less is demanded of Grant if he is not to be a soon-forgotten caretaker figure.