Avram Grant will lead his Chelsea team out at Wembley on Sunday, glance up at one particular seat and savour an emotionally charged moment. For the first time since he took the manager's job, he will be watched by the person he considers his inspiration.

His father Meir, who survived unspeakable horrors during the Second World War as his family fled Nazi persecution, celebrated his 80th birthday on Thursday and has travelled from Israel at Grant's invitation.

"My father is a great man, one of the greatest that I know, he gave me a lot in my life," said Grant. "He suffered a lot when he was young, he was a survivor of the Holocaust but what has always impressed me about him is that he always sees positive things. He is optimistic like I have never seen. Even when I was at school, he saw only the good marks.

Even now, he is optimistic. If you speak to him about the past, he says it was the past and that he lives in the future. He's only 80 years old. I wish him all the best. I love him."