Unthinkable that Jose Mourinho could ever return to Real

Given that Jose Mourinho is manager at Chelsea again, six years after falling out with Roman Abramovich, is there any way he could patch things up with Real Madrid and return there one day?

The simple answer is no. He may have been able to flirt with Chelsea and Inter Milan but for the first time he has left a club in a way that means it is unthinkable he could go back, despite Real president Florentino Perez hinting yesterday Mourinho could be manager again one day.

The problem is there has been too much noise without enough product.

In three years, Real have won the league title, the Copa del Rey and the Super Cup but over the same period Barcelona have collected eight trophies. And Barca, under Pep Guardiola and then Tito Vilanova, have done it without all the tension Mourinho has generated. Were all the press conferences, all the accusations of UEFA and Spanish Football Association helping Barcelona needed?

The controversy has seen Mourinho clash with his own players — most notably Iker Casillas, used cleverly to wake up a sleeping squad — opposing managers and coaches — unbelievably poking Vilanova in the eye during a brawl at the Super Cup — and, of course, the Spanish media. Had the Portuguese brought Real their 10th Champions League crown then perhaps these outbursts and antics may have been overlooked.

He was right in that three semi-final defeats in a row were an improvement on previous years. The team had lost weight in Europe and recovering it was an achievement. You don’t need to look at success from a title point of view if you fight for them with perhaps the best team in history, but he won the league with 100 points with Guardiola’s team at their peak.

To do all that you cannot just be a good coach, but an extraordinary one. And Jose is that. But would results have been similar without the antics, when you consider he had the best squad he has ever had? Probably.

How do you judge his tenure at Madrid? Any manager who has been at Real for three years in a row has won more titles than Mourinho. And there is also the fact he has not left much behind. It’s not as if he’s prepared a group of young talent to step into the first team.