London: Chelsea coach Avram Grant paid a glowing tribute to Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson after the Londoners were beaten to the Premier League title by the Red Devils on Sunday.

"I want to congratulate Manchester United and Alex Ferguson," Grant said. "He is a great manager and a great person, it is amazing what he did."

Grant was speaking after United successfully defended the title after a 2-0 win over Wigan, making Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Bolton at Stamford Bridge irrelevant.

Ferguson thus collected his tenth league title of a remarkable career.

Chelsea and United can now look forward to clashing in the all-English Champions League final in Moscow on May 21, a match Grant said was a "dream".

"When you come to the final you want to win. We wanted to win the league as well but it wasn't ever in our hands," he said.

The dour Israeli, who as a surprise replacement for the charismatic Jose Mourinho during the season, continued: "We didn't start very good and then we played good football and then our big players got injured. We recovered very well with very good football so we can be proud."

Grant sidestepped questions over his future amid speculation that Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard, who is leaving the Barcelona hotseat, or Russia coach Guus Hiddink, are being lined up to take over.

Asked if he has discussed his position with Chelsea's billionaire owner Roman Abramovich who was in the crowd yesterday, Grant said only that the Russian "wanted to come today and I was happy to see him today."

Grant said he would "wait and see" if captain John Terry will be for the Champions League showdown after he dislocated an elbow early in the Bolton match and had to be stretchered off.

"We have time, we will see," Grant said.

Source : PTI