Is this Mourinho's last year?: If Jose Mourinho's rivals are most unlikely to get the better of him in the Premiership, they will have to settle for trying to outlast the Chelsea manager. It often appears that the only brittle component in the Stamford Bridge machine is the Portuguese himself.
There have been occasions when Mourinho has spoken about snapping the relationship with the club. The simplest theory suggests that he is not the type to stick around indefinitely.
No one can imagine him as the future godfather of the English game, a successor to Alex Ferguson as he sits at the centre of a web of connections that touches the furthest corners of the country. That is simply not in Mourinho's nature, and the notion that he would even opt to hang around for decades is absurd. To date, his longest spell as a manager has been the two-and-a-half years he devoted to Porto.
Mourinho eases himself into a third season at Chelsea in tomorrow's Community Shield game with Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium. He can foster the belief that the end is in sight.
No one would have marked the retention of a Premiership title as he did in April. Those who anticipated mellow bliss or spiky triumphalism after the jaw-dropping, 3-0 rout of Manchester United were in for a surprise. The dial on his personality had been set to stroppy.
"I have thought a couple of times to close the door and say goodbye . . . at the end of the season," Mourinho divulged.
"This is the worst club in the world to be a manager. You can win, you can achieve, but it is never enough. I won nine consecutive matches this season and I was never manager of the month, not one single time."
Maybe going into a sulk was merely his unique way of registering a relief of tension after his side had wavered slightly during the run-in.
The reality is, however, that Mourinho has had such feelings throughout his stay in England. In Chelsea FC, the official biography, Rick Glanvill quotes the manager brooding on the "strange feeling around Chelsea" and asking himself in his first season, "Why? I don't need that in my career now."
No one should suppose they have the measure of this individual, so scientific in his preparation of footballers yet also so volatile. He is gifted enough, as well, to be able to follow any whim.
While Roman Abramovich is the richest of owners, the millions in salary to which Mourinho has rapidly become accustomed could still be found elsewhere. Real Madrid, Internazionale and a string of others might happily come up with the right salary.
You don't have to go far in London either to hear the rumours of a Chelsea plan to part company with him next summer. Should the Champions League again be beyond Mourinho's reach in his third campaign, Abramovich may well wonder if a change of approach is essential.
The gossip specifies a successor to Mourinho, even if it stops short of explaining how Guus Hiddink's departure from the Russia job would be finessed with the Euro 2008 qualification campaign still to be completed. Having assumed such power at PSV Eindhoven that Frank Arnesen felt moved to leave, the reunion between Hiddink and his fellow Dutchman at Stamford Bridge would be intriguing. Nonetheless, the Russia coach is one of the few people who could conceivably replace Mourinho.
No matter who exactly wished to sign them all, there are so many stars at Chelsea that the club might swiftly become unstable if a lesser manager were in charge. There have been periods when the likes of Real and Inter seemed to exist solely to demonstrate that money can be a curse.
It is Mourinho's gift to bring order, somehow making millionaires accept strict tactical systems and embrace a culture of self-sacrifice. Headlines are made by the sort of incident in which he humiliated Ricardo Carvalho, after some rebellious comments by the defender, but that is not the essence of Mourinho's work.
There is more evidence of the warmth he can show players and of the trust that they have in him. Alterations to the line-up or the tactical revamp he employed in the spring to steady the side with the switch to a midfield quartet have generally been effective and, no matter the fortunes they have accumulated, most players will bond with a manager who can direct them towards trophies.
Despite the intermittent discontents, Mourinho and Chelsea may still realise that they will need one another for a while yet.
Guardian Service
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)