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Avram Grant set to quit as Portsmouth manager after clash with Manchester City
Avram Grant will take charge of Portsmouth at Manchester City on Sunday but it may be the last time he sends a team out as manager of the troubled south coast club.
By Alex Crook
Published: 11:00PM GMT 29 Jan 2010
Grant did little to quash suggestions he is on the verge of stepping down by cancelling Friday's pre-match press conference after telling club officials he did want to answer questions on his future.
As Portsmouth continued negotiations with Tottenham over the sales of influential pair Asmir Begovic and Younes Kaboul, the Israeli also left coaches Ian Woan and Paul Groves to take training ahead of the trip to Eastlands.
To add to Grant's despair he and his squad arrived at the club's Southampton base to discover they had not been paid for the third month in succession.
Players, including England goalkeeper David James, have been told they will not get their share of Portsmouth's monthly £1.8 million wage bill until Begovic or Kaboul have been sold.
It is the decision of controversial owner Ali Al Faraj to sell Kaboul and Begovic for a reduced fee, believed to be no more than £7 million, which has led to Grant considering his future.
While chief executive Peter Storrie has withdrawn his threat to resign after also being kept uninformed by Al Faraj, Grant is keeping his own counsel.
Storrie offered no guarantees the former Chelsea manager would be staying: "I don't intend to quit now I've slept on it, and although I cannot speak for Avram, from what we have talked about this morning I don't think he will quit either. Let's face it, we both have good reason to walk out."
In a further twist to Portsmouth's financial misery it emerged Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger is trying to gazump Tottenham in their pursuit of Begovic, delaying the Bosnian international's departure.
Tottenham have offered £3 million for Begovic, 22, brought to England by Harry Redknapp as a teenager when he was in charge at Portsmouth. Wenger is willing to pay £5 million.
Manchester City's long-term commitment to manager Roberto Mancini has been borne out by the Italian bringing forward plans to secure a permanent base in the city, just five weeks after his arrival as successor to Mark Hughes.
Mancini's instant impact at Eastlands, both on and off the pitch, has earned admiration from senior figures close to City's owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, who believe that the former Inter Milan coach has vindicated their decision to dismiss Hughes last month by reinvigorating the playing squad and reviving ambitions of a top-four finish this season.
Having signed a three-and-a-half-year contract when succeeding Hughes, Mancini had suggested that his position would be reviewed following an initial six-month period at the end of the season.
But City have made it clear to the 45 year-old that they regard him as a central figure in their plans to take the club to a higher level and, having spent just over a month living in a city centre hotel, Mancini has informed chief executive Garry Cook that he now intends to lay down roots by acquiring a property in the city.
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