London, England (My Sportsbook) - Chelsea dramatically fired coach Avram Grant on Saturday following its Champions League final penalty shootout loss to rival Manchester United.

Israeli Grant took charge at Stamford Bridge in late September following the acrimonious departure of Jose Mourinho and led the Blues to second place in the Premier League, as they missed out on the title to United on the final day of the season.

Grant then saw his charges lose on penalties in Moscow in the Champions League final Wednesday, before being relieved of his duties three days later.

A short statement on the club's official website read: "Chelsea Football Club can confirm that Avram Grant has had his contract as manager terminated. This follows meetings over the last two days.

"Everybody at Chelsea FC would like to thank Avram for his contribution since taking over as manager last September.

"We will now be concentrating all our efforts on identifying a new manager for Chelsea and there will be no further comment until that appointment is made."

Chairman Bruce Buck had earlier warned that the club's hierarchy expected trophy success.

"We have had a great season. In the four competitions we were in, we were runners-up in three of them," he said. "But we have very high expectations at Chelsea and a couple of second-place finishes is just not good enough for us.

"Although we never would have thought in September when Jose Mourinho left that we would be able to make it into a Champions League final, Chelsea is here to win trophies.

"So, although it was an excellent season, we are still disappointed."

(Courtesy of sportbox.tv)