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| Roman Abramovich lost patience and sacked Mourinho again after Chelsea's awful start to the season |
THE final blow was swift, devastating and almost completely unexpected by the victim. Jose Mourinho was knifed in the back by Chelsea in true Roman fashion.
At 1pm today Mourinho had finished the morning training session and was preparing for lunch in expectation of facing the press today ahead of the visit of Sunderland.
An hour later he was called into his office by board members Eugene Tenenbaum and Bruce Buck, despatched to Cobham by Mr Abramovich. Ten minutes later he had left the club "by mutual consent".
For the best part of the next two hours he cleared his desk and said his farewells before emerging into the gathering darkness with a hoodie pulled low over his brow and a single white carrier bag in his hand.
By the time his driver reached the main entrance to the club's Cobham training ground for probably the very last time, he covered his face to hide it from the large phalanx of photographers desperate to catch his final farewell.
It was no way for the club's greatest manager to leave a club he had built and then rebuilt into the finest in the land. Three Premier League titles, an FA Cup, three League Cups and a Community Shield should be enough for any man to leave with his head held high.
He was neither a Special One nor a Happy One. Instead, he was a Confused One.
Much like the Chelsea fans who thronged to Stamford Bridge to wring their hands for the benefit of the Sky cameras, Mourinho genuinely did not think Abramovich would make the same mistake twice.
"If I am sacked, they will be sacking the best manager this club has ever had," Mourinho said with his usual self-belief when the club's owner issued an unprecedented vote of confidence in response to slipping to fifth from bottom of the Premier League.
That was 73 days ago. Chelsea scraped through the Champions League group stages but domestically - against all expectation - results refused to pick up.
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| Jose watches on as Chelsea scrape through the Champions League group stages by beating Porto 2-0 |
Mourinho remained positive and last week seemed as upbeat as he had done all season, even playing tricks on the media gathered for his press conference by pretending to run off with their voice recorders.
Those same machines had captured the best and worst of Mourinho over the two spells. The mishandling of Eva Carneiro's situation earlier in the season was very much in the latter camp and on Monday night he seemed to be heading there again.
By suggesting he had been "betrayed" by the players, he appeared to be setting up an "us and them" divide which flew in the face of everything he preached.
Did that mean he had lost the dressing room? It was an accusation bandied about at the start of the week but which slowly began to lose credence as time went on.
Eden Hazard, whose abject lack of form this season has contributed as much as anything to Chelsea's dismal points tally, was supposed to be sulking after earlier accusations that he was not fulfilling his defensive duties had stung last season's double footballer of the year.
"Nonsense", said Thierry Hazard, the player's father, only yesterday, adding his boy had no problem with his manager.
Another out-of-sorts talent was one of the first to tweet when news of Mourinho's departure was confirmed. "Thank you for all you have done for me," wrote Cesc Fabregas. "I owe you a lot and we will all miss you. Good luck in the future."
Even if there were a few pampered and disaffected voices, Mourinho has previously managed Real Madrid and no amount of ego was allowed to stand in his way to La Liga success. The 52-year-old manages the dressing room.
Yet when Abramovich sounded out his trusted cohorts to conduct a post-mortem following Monday's defeat at the King Power Stadium, the negative verdict must have been pretty damning because the Russian immediately set wheels in motion to appoint a successor behind Mourinho's back.
Nevertheless, by the compensation terms of Mourinho's contract, he will continue paying one of the world's top managers £250,000 a week just to sit at home - at least until somebody else gives Mourinho a new challenge.
That will likely be only a short way into the remaining three-and-a-half years of his relatively new project.
He has already enjoyed success in Portugal, Spain and Italy, but what price Mourinho landing somewhere else in the Premier League?
It was almost unthinkable that Mourinho could take charge of another team in this country other than Chelsea when he left the first time eight years ago.
But rest assured if Mourinho does march back into Stamford Bridge in search of revenge any time soon, he will not slink in with a towel over his head.
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