The odds were always on for an explosive ending. It was simply a question of when. Given that there has been a crisis in all but the first of José Mourinho’s three and a bit seasons, the real surprise is that the combustible marriage lasted as long as it has.

In the first year or two, Mourinho called the shots, threatening to quit (and winning himself a pay rise in doing so). His stunning impact ensured that Chelsea bowed to all his demands.

But Roman Abramovich is not the sort of man to be dictated to for long and he would have given Chelsea a facelift last season if only Jürgen Klinsmann had accepted his job offer. Now he appears to have driven out Mourinho by making no secret of his demands for stylish football and full houses.

In doing so, he has set himself the challenge of finding a manager who can win the Champions League while playing football he can swoon over. There are a few out there — Arsène Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson among them — but we can rule out those two. Whoever comes in should know that the boss pays well but sets such phenomenally high standards that even Mourinho appears to have given up — and the Portuguese thinks that he is the greatest manager to stand on a training ground.

Expert View

If Jose Mourinho’s football had been as dramatic and exciting as the manner of his departure, he would still be manager of Chelsea this morning

Martin Samuel

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Background

• Goodbye Mourinho: manager leaves Chelsea

• End of the road for gunslinger who played like an accountant

• Battle always destined to end in divorce

• Lack of thrills and high prices prove big turn-off

Background

• Grant named as Mourinho's successor

• Take it as said: Mourinho's finest quotes

• Mourinho to leave Britain, say bookies

• Avram Grant factfile

Background

• Battle always destined to end in divorce

• Avram Grant rises to lofty pinnacle without trace

Background

• Mourinho's transfer hits and misses

• Mourinho and controversy

• Eriksson backs Grant appointment

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• Wilkins 'astounded' at Mourinho departure

• Your say on Chelsea

• Jose Mourinho timeline

• Jose Mourinho factfile

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• Fanzine Fanzone

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• Pictures: Chelsea, the Mourinho years

So, as it has turned out, it was not the best week for Chelsea to be talking about world domination. But is there ever a good week? Is there ever a right time to be claiming that you want to “turn the world blue” or discussing lifting the European Cup for a second time when the first one is proving hard to come by?

Drawing at home to Rosenborg on Tuesday night in front of a half-empty Stamford Bridge was particularly bad timing in the light of Peter Kenyon’s grand boasts, but Chelsea could have won 10-0 in front of a packed house and the chief executive would still have sounded presumptuous beyond belief. Undoubtedly his comments played a significant part in the timing of Mourinho’s departure.

Kenyon set out Chelsea’s mission statement in a new documentary, Blue Revolution, which — with wonderful timing — was being given its premiere last night just as the club were going into meltdown. It includes the claim that “over a ten-year period you need two European Cups to be a world club”. Which is news to Manchester United and Barcelona, who have won it twice each in 50 years but still manage to be revered across the globe.

Kenyon’s words were part of the continued attempt to conquer the planet (a feat to be measured, presumably, in European Cups and shirt sales in China), but as seduction techniques go, Chelsea’s remains as subtle as that of a caveman. Using trophies to bludgeon the world into loving them may work in Beijing, but as thousands of empty seats testify, not necessarily in London.

You have to feel sorry for the intelligent Chelsea fans because they hate this global domination stuff more than anyone. They recognise that winning two European Cups is an heroic, sporting mission — one that continues to torment and inspire Ferguson — rather than something to be assumed as part of a brand strategy, a marketing plan.

The defence for Chelsea’s vaulting ambition is that they are playing catch-up with United, Real Madrid and AC Milan, but why does it have to happen today, tomorrow, in a decade? We keep being told that Abramovich is in this for the long haul, so, given that his team are one of the most powerful in Europe, what’s the rush?

Perhaps we would all be impatient if we had ploughed more than £500 million into a hobby and Abramovich had plenty of reasons to fall out of love with Mourinho. The Portuguese’s style of football is risk-free, a far cry from the Russian oligarch’s dreams of building a new Barcelona or Real Madrid in West London. Mourinho was high maintenance.

His worst excesses — the flouting of rules, the arguments with referees, Uefa, the Berkshire Ambulance Authority — would wear anyone out. But this is a crisis of their making. Kenyon scoffed at the idea that Mourinho was under pressure but promptly cranked up the heat by talking about Abramovich’s great expectations.

It had created an environment in which any setback was bound to be leapt upon. Tuesday’s draw came on the back of defeat by Aston Villa and a stalemate at home to Blackburn Rovers. Hardly a crisis in normal circumstances — and there is nothing wrong with the team that the return of Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard cannot cure — but enough to destroy the fragile peace that was only going to last the rest of this season, if that.

No one could have guessed that it would lead to a schism so quickly but Kenyon’s talk of total belief in Mourinho this week had sounded about as convincing as Tottenham Hotspur’s public backing for Martin Jol. In their shared belief that vast outlay entitles them to glorious triumph, both clubs could be said to have much in common. And neither is going anywhere fast.

'Special' times

June 1, 2004: Becomes Chelsea manager

June 2: Tells press conference: “I’m a European champion and I think I’m a special one.”

February 27, 2005: Wins first trophy, beating Liverpool in League Cup final. Allegedly incites Liverpool fans after Chelsea’s late equaliser.

March 14: Volker Roth, Uefa referees’ committee chairman, says Mourinho is “the enemy of football” after the manager implies Anders Frisk, the referee, was biased towards Barcelona in a Champions League tie against Chelsea because he spoke at half-time to Frank Rijkaard, the Spanish club’s coach.

March 31: Receives two-match touchline ban from Uefa for his comments about Frisk.

April 6: Reported to have ignored that ban by talking to players at Stamford Bridge on night of match against Bayern Munich and escaping the dressing-room area in a laundry basket.

April 30: Secures club’s first league title in 50 years with win away to Bolton Wanderers.

June 2: Fined for part in Ashley Cole tapping-up saga.

December: Calls Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, a voyeur because he constantly talks about Chelsea.

April 29, 2006: Wins second successive league title after win over Manchester United.

January 10, 2007: Complains that he is not allowed to buy new players to solve Chelsea’s injury crisis.

September 14: Implies that Andriy Shevchenko tries harder when playing for Ukraine than for Chelsea.