Grant: Silverware or bust March 11 2008
Avram Grant has admitted he must guide his Chelsea side to either the Premier League or the UEFA Champions League title, or else he will lose his job in the summer.
Grant was speaking after the Blues suffered an embarrassing 1-0 defeat to Championship club Barnsley in the FA Cup on Saturday evening.
With Manchester United exiting the FA Cup earlier in the day at the hands of Portsmouth, it represented the west Londoners' best chance of winning a trophy this season.
Grant's team currently lie third in the league, eight points behind leaders Arsenal, but with two games in hand after the Gunners' stalemate against Wigan on Sunday afternoon.
However, Chelsea still have to face both Arsenal and United, and have failed to beat any of the 'big four' since Grant took his position as manager in September.
They remain in the UEFA Champions League after beating Greek outfit Olympiacos in convincing fashion last week, but given Grant's record in important games of late, Blues owner Roman Abramovich will probably not be holding out much hope of claiming European glory.
When asked if failing to win silverware this campaign would result in his dismissal from the club, Grant said: "I will accept it. When I am responsible for the team, and when my team loses at Barnsley, there will be many negative things said about it.
"On the other hand, we have two major competitions left. I am concentrating on them, not other things. But this is a massive disappointment."
The Israeli's assistant Henk ten Cate, the man at the centre of the Stamford Bridge club's alleged dressing room problems, went on to say that the pressure on his boss is growing by the day.
The Dutch coach said: "One bad run of results and you're out. You just can't afford to lose here.
"I came to Chelsea because I was looking for peace. I wanted to work at the top level and at the same time I was looking for peace."