tournament he is sponsoring, rather than be at Stamford Bridge for the second leg of the League Cup semi-final tonight. The Chelsea owner's decision to miss his second successive match, following his non-appearance at Anfield last Saturday, will fuel the growing crisis at the Premiership champions. It is clear that Abramovich is staying away from games because of his disillusionment with the club's manager, Jose Mourinho.
he has fallen out with. The billionaire, despite his power and wealth, goes out of his way to avoid face-to-face confrontation. Such is the rift that Abramovich has poured millions into the competition in Tel Aviv, the so-called First Channel Cup, which lasts a week and involves six clubs - two from Israel, Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv; two from Russia, Spartak Moscow and CSKA Moscow; and two from Ukraine, Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar However, the competition does not start until tomorrow and there is no Wanderers this evening and then travel to Israel.
The League Two side drew whether or not he intends to employ Avram Grant, the former coach of the national team who is currently Ports-mouth's technical director. It is now taken as given from sources close to both men that Grant, who is close to Frank Arnesen, Chelsea's youth football director, will join the club either Grant does not, however, speak Russian, as has been claimed in some reports, Aviv, Itzhak Shum, who was born in Russia and succeeded Grant. But there is no love lost between the two men.
It is unlikely that, in light of Grant's strong relationship with Abramovich, that Shum would be employed at Chelsea.
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