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Ivanovic doesn’t hold grudge against Grant

Grant was in charge at Chelsea when Ivanovic joined from Lokomotiv Moscow for nine million pounds in January 2008, but the Serbian right-back didn’t make a single appearance during his first season at Stamford Bridge.

After struggling with injury, Ivanovic found himself a frustrated and angry bystander when he returned to fitness.

He felt frozen out by Grant but two years later has become a key member of the Blues team and is now set to feature against his old boss in Saturday’s FA Cup final.

Ivanovic, who is confident of overcoming a minor knee injury to start at Wembley, admitted he came close to leaving during those unhappy first months at Chelsea.

“I have no ill-feeling towards Avram but at that moment I was really angry,” he said.

“I don’t think you can find a player in the world who is happy when they’re not playing. This is normal, it’s a human thing.

“You think you deserve to play but a manager’s job is to find the players he wants to play. Of course I was very angry.

“The squad was very strong and they were trying to get to the Champions League final.

They were also involved in a very tough title race with Manchester United, like it was this year. However, it was the most difficult time in my career.

“Maybe I was thinking about it (leaving) but that was two years ago. Things have changed now. It wasn’t in just one day, it changed step by step.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard is determined to ensure Portsmouth’s chaotic campaign doesn’t produce a fairytale finish.

Grant’s team have been relegated amid a financial meltdown which has left the club in administration with debts of 130 million pounds (189 million dollars).

Lampard has sympathy for Portsmouth’s plight but the champions won’t be handing out any favours at Wembley this weekend.

“We don’t want it to be a fairytale that goes all the way for Portsmouth, we have to be ruthless how we approach the game,” Lampard said.

“To win the league was a huge thing for us last week. We got that job done but we knew the season wasn’t over.

“We saw Portsmouth against Tottenham in the semi-final and we’ve seen them have a very spirited end to the season, even with the difficult circumstances.

“The double is huge and has never been done in our history. We really want to do it. I grew up always knowing the big teams that had done the double in the ‘70s and ‘80s, so if we do it, it will go down as the best year in the club’s history.”