But success soon followed. The ‘special one’ bought title after title to the Bridge, keeping the locals happy, despite a distinct lack of panache. And it is this lack of style, we are constantly told, which led to his downfall. Buying a football club always seemed like a bit of fun to Mr Abramovich. For fantasies of European glory, most mortals play Championship Manager. Roman did it for real. Winning trophies was one thing, but he wanted adoration as well. The budget for champagne football was there, but Mourinho rarely produced it.

This is why the decision to replace him with Avram Grant appears to be one of the most astonishing decisions in the history of football. His sole achievement is winning a few titles in the Israeli League, where the standard isn’t much higher than the Vauxhall Conference, or whatever it’s called these days. But he is most famous for ‘nearly’ getting Israel to Germany ’06. In reality, this ‘nearly’ consisted of a series of gritty draws against the top teams in the group (France, Switzerland, Ireland), and a close victory over the Faeroe Islands. But perhaps even more strangely, given the issue of flair, is the fact that Grant seems to be cut from the same cloth as Mourinho. According to Yoav Borowitz of Haaretz, “he doesn’t care a lot for the aesthetics of the game, he just doesn’t want to get beaten.”