Jose Mourinho to Real Madrid? Not necessarily...

It is not difficult to picture the scene – a full Santiago Bernabeu with around 50 per cent of the 80,000 supporters applauding the return of the Jose Mourinho and the other half drowning out the applause with deafening whistles.

He divides opinion everywhere he goes but only at one of his former clubs are the fans torn down the middle. Marca ran a poll of Real Madrid supporters on Thursday as news broke in Spain that third-season syndrome had brought about Mourinho’s departure at Chelsea. Of the 47,000 votes cast, 48 per cent said they would welcome him back while 52 per cent said they would not. Spanish radio station Cadena Cope polled over 7,000 listeners and their results were more decisive with 44 per cent saying he was the solution while 56 per cent preferring the “You must be joking” option.

The comments underneath the online votes were also revealing. There were over 500 of them on Marca’s website and they ranged from those saying his return would make their Christmas, to others threatening to stop supporting the team for as long as he was back at the club.

With Mourinho publically declaring his interest in getting straight back into management yesterday, he is unlikely to lack admirers in Europe, though he does seem to prefer managing in England and is said to have his heart set on taking over at Manchester United.

At another of his former clubs, Internazionale, there would be no division of loyalties among supporters. The last time they saw Mourinho he was holding their first European Cup for 45 years – how could they not welcome him with open arms? The life-size cardboard cut-out of himself he kept in his office in subsequent jobs at Madrid and Chelsea was from his days in Italy.

But Roberto Mancini has the team on top of Serie A and there is no good reason for making a change. Massimo Moratti, who cried tears of joy when Mourinho finally gave him the trophy his years of investment had worked towards, is no longer at the club – giving up his honorary president title last year and selling the club to Erick Thohir, an Indonesia businessman, in 2013. Elsewhere in Italy, Roma have approached him and been turned down.

France is virgin territory for Mourinho. The finances are there at Paris Saint-Germain to mount a serious Champions League challenge but there are reservations at the club about his confrontational style. He was once the man every player wanted to play for, but would his arrival now derail any attempts to sign Cristiano Ronaldo or Eden Hazard?

Ronaldo is part of a Madrid dressing room that would certainly be largely against his return. Pepe and Sergio Ramos were also embroiled in the civil war that engulfed the club in his final season and although Mourinho’s playing style would suit Gareth Bale, the Welshman wants Rafa Benitez to stay and succeed.

The field is narrowing. Clubs who want to make long-term appointments and make only positive sporting headlines are put off by Mourinho’s record of never having completed a fourth season or even made it to a third without dressing- room troubles. But from that narrowing field there will still be one club who can imagine the trophies ahead and think: “We’ll worry about the trouble when it comes”.