As Chelsea fans stay blind with their unwavering support for Jose Mourinho, they will wonder if this equally-celebrated, equally-hated charismatic Portuguese manager follows a certain pattern when it comes to his time as manager of a football club. From his first stint at Chelsea through his times as coach of Inter Milan, Real Madrid and his 2^nd spell with Chelsea, Mourinho has shown a routine wherein he arrives at a club, stamps his personality to change the environment to suit his style, enjoys a couple of successful seasons (not even so in the case with Real Madrid, although he did manage to dispirit a top grade Barcelona team) and then delve into the ugly side of the game – verbal bouts with opposition managers, creating sects within players in the dressing room, foul mouthed rants at referees, putting the club into disrepute.

Carlo Ancelotti is everything that Mourinho is not – calm, attack-minded approach towards football, peace loving, suave. No wonder he is considered the immediate balm to the wounds left by Mourinho. Real Madrid’s new-age galacticos played their best football under him and whether it was the right decision for Perez to let him go is till up for debate.

However, with Chelsea’s latest debacle, an exit in the fourth round of the Carling Cup at the hands of Stoke City, Roman Abramovich may be thinking of picking up the phone to call yet another one of his former managers.