Inside the mind of Roman Abramovich

On April 26th this year, José Mourinho handed in his list of transfer requirements for the coming season.

With the newly re-crowned Special One fresh from a Premiership and Capital Cup double it was a formality.

Mourinho was already beginning to plan on the basis of a rejigged side for the 2015/16 season: there were worrying signs in the back line and a difficult conversation was due with one loyal servant; the Chelsea midfield had somehow staggered over the finish line and reinforcements were overdue; last but not least, Diego Costa was a worry - not only for his hamstring struggles but also for his potentially calamitous propensity to pick fights.

Upstairs in the board room, there was a whole different thought-process: the Stamford Bridge redevelopment was a go and that would cost serious money; fortunately, the team`s margin of victory in the Premiership was such that, when you added in the best youth program in football, transfer expenses would need to be minimal.

Plus there was one more wrinkle to add in to the mix: never a shrinking violet at the best of times, Mourinho`s ego had grown - if such a thing were possible! - following the season`s successes; several 'courtiers` in the court of King Roman not only felt jealous of Mourinho`s high profile and his direct and special relationship with the King, but also felt it was time to reassert the pre-eminence of Chelsea FC Inc. over mere footballing matters.

So when suddenly and unexpectedly Mourinho`s list was largely rejected, you don't need to be a master psychologist to guess what The Hot-Headed One`s reaction would be.

And so the fuse was lit, a fuse that would lead to explosion after explosion as predictably as night followed day.

There were moments when the sheer will and talent on the footballing side of the club threatened to snuff the fuse out, but at every such moment the same people that lit the fuse would fan it back to life with a perfectly-timed leak to the media or some other tweak of Mourinho`s nose guaranteed to throw everything back off balance.

On the question of the manager`s seemingly out of control ego, it`s fair to ask certain key questions.

Was Mourinho`s fury at learning of his vetoed transfer list enough to give rise to some element of self-sabotage? A desire to say "I told you so!" that overpowered optimal team selection?

If so, that would be a very serious charge.

But enough to lose Chelsea`s best ever manager his job?

There is absolutely no doubt at all that, as the bad results piled up, Mourinho`s refrain to the board was a) I told you so, and b) only the January transfer window can save us.

Was a wholesale influx of new blood - Kenedy, RLC, Baba Rahman, Loic Remy - something that Mourinho couldn't allow for fear of being proved wrong? For fear of the owner`s belief that Chelsea`s youth was the way forward being proved right and thus undermining his own authority? It`s possible - too possible to be discounted.

If true, that`s another serious charge.

But Roman Abramovich has not got where he is today by being rash or by making too many wrong decisions.

Like any cool and rational mogul he would never cut off his nose to spite his face.

Whatever Mourinho`s clumsy response to intra-CFC politics, the fact remains that Mourinho is the best manager in Chelsea`s history bar none; and he was right to request the players he did, and it was a big mistake to turn those requests down.

While his manager may have crossed the line in some respects, Roman Abramovich will know that to punish Mourinho by firing him will almost certainly mean relegation at this point.

RA will know that the most trustworthy way out of Chelsea`s current predicament is to trust his best-ever manager - which means giving him next January what he needed last April.

Other teams aren't stupid: they will be waiting for a now desperate Chelsea to come knocking - be it Everton, Atletico, Juventus, Bayer Leverkussen, no matter who - and prices that may have been steep last spring will be astronomical this winter.

Even in Saturday`s Stoke defeat 10 Chelsea men played more than energetically and well enough to win comfortably had the 11th - the goal-scorer! - been in the game and not in some personal crusade against Stoke defenders.

The addition of a new striker will now be job one for January - until then bet on young Remy being first choice.

Meanwhile, Roman Abramovich - who brought José Mourinho back home for keeps - will closely monitor whether his chosen manager for the coming decade has grown stronger from the lessons of the 2015/16 season, or been irretrievably weakened.