Covering the real story at Chelsea
Around two years ago, I went for lunch with .
Ok, it wasn't just me - had invited sports editors from across the national media for an informal and off-the-record chat with their charismatic, and occasionally combustible, manager.
Mourinho held court for around two hours - he was captivating company...
And I hope it's not giving too much away to say he spoke passionately and positively about , even enthusing about how the Chelsea owner watched more football than he did.
But that was before Shevchenko, before Ballack and before anyone had even heard of Avram Grant.
The catastrophic collapse of Mourinho's relationship with Abramovich over the past 18 months has been one of the biggest sports stories around - and yet, not an easy one to cover.
I was at a wedding over the summer and one of the other guests started to have a go at me about the media's coverage of Chelsea.
To paraphrase him, he questioned why "you lot" are always going on about rows behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge but nobody is ever quoted and there are no hard facts. "How do we know it's true?" he challenged me.
As I blustered about our sources at Chelsea, I could see his expression looking distinctly unimpressed. By the end of our chat, I was reduced to telling him that the stories are true and he would just have to believe me. Not a particularly convincing argument.
But the truth is that cannot just swallow the official, sanitised line - whether that's from football clubs, politicians or anywhere else. Our job is to report what's really going on and that does involve speaking off-the-record to people who don't want to be named or even quoted.
Even Chelsea have now admitted that the relationship between Mourinho and the club had "broken down" and that it has been a problem for "several months."
However, it's ironic that while Mourinho was texting his favoured players on Wednesday night to tell them he was leaving, at the same time the club were showcasing their new promotional DVD Blue Revolution in which chief executive Peter Kenyon was championing Mourinho as a true "winner."
Footballers and football officials are always telling us not to believe everything you read in the papers. I might add to that - don't believe everything you read on official websites and hear on promotional DVDs.
The other common complaint about our coverage of these types of stories is - "Why can't you just concentrate on what's happening on the pitch?"
But this story, as much as any other, has proved that are inextricably linked to what happens on it.
Chelsea believe their performances were beginning to suffer because of the rows behind the scenes and you can bet the Stamford Bridge faithful will be seeing a lot more of Andriy Shevchenko now that Mourinho has gone.
