José Mourinho? Over him already. He’s history. What did he ever do for us anyway? It’s common knowledge that it was all down to Steve Clarke. We’ve moved on. All together, then: “Avram Grant’s blue-and-white army . . .”

Not convincing you? I’m not convincing myself, either. If you support Chelsea, the loss of Mourinho is going to gouge a deep hole. Not the idea of it – because going at some point, and most likely in a shower of electrical sparks, was always clearly part of the deal – but the fact of it.

I’m not sure I’d go quite as far as the fan on a phone-in yesterday who said it was like losing his dad. But it’s a tangible sadness and a kick to the stomach.

Mourinho was the greatest manager Chelsea have had, or are likely to have – brilliant, passionate, dangerous, funny and sometimes all of those things in the same five seconds. Great suits, too.

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There is nothing in Avram Grant’s CV that qualifies him for this job

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BACKGROUND

• Blue is colour, total chaos the game

• No special side to Grant

• Shoot-out at the Bridge goes to Abramovich

• Grant's job under threat from lack of Uefa licence

BACKGROUND

• Ferguson keeps Chelsea under pressure

• California dreamin’ in bid to lure Mourinho

• Machiavellian manager will not remain on shelf

• Chelsea could become Southern Rock

BACKGROUND

• Ferguson upset by 'relieved' Mourinho's exit

• What did Roman’s magician ever do for us ...?

• How Jose made the game more beautiful

Multimedia

• Who needs Mourinho - TheGame online

• Fanzine Fanzone

• Jose Mourinho video highlights

Multimedia

• Pictures: Chelsea, the Mourinho years

The things his critics found to vilify him for were things we supporters particularly loved about him. He was accused of harping on about the injustice of the “goal that never was” in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final at Anfield in 2005. Well, maybe he did. But either these things matter to you or they don’t. And to Mourinho, clearly, they mattered.

Grindingly successful? Again, there was a grain of truth in that. But you would say this much in favour of grindingly successful: it has a lot to recommend it over grindingly unsuccessful, which is the historical background that most Chelsea fans are necessarily coming from.

And, yes, I can see that the magic has been fading for some time. Why, last year Chelsea only won the FA Cup and the Carling Cup, finished runners-up in the league and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League, so what a season of withering underachievement that was.

Mourinho goes, then, and the task of converting Stamford Bridge into a non-stop footballing gasp-o-rama lies in the hands of somebody who, not long ago, was in the boot-room at Portsmouth. Do fairytales come true? I guess we’re about to find out, starting against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday and then, gloriously, away to Hull City in the Carling Cup three days later.

The fact is, though, that Roman Abramovich could announce this morning that he had secured the services of Frank Rijkaard and Guus Hiddink in football’s first civil partnership, declare that all three of them will be at the airport in January to welcome Ronaldinho to Chelsea, and it wouldn’t feel like any kind of consolation right now for the loss of Mourinho. We would take him back in a heartbeat.