I know that we are still inside the bubble, José Mourinho still runs the ship at the Santiago Bernabéu and they are still developing their legacy, trying to break the Guardiola/Barcelona hegemony in La Liga, but is there anyone who believes that Mourinho´s stay in Spain is long-term? I mean, does anyone have a bet to make that the ¨Special One¨ will run out the end of his contract at the Bernabeu? He´s stated he wants to return to England, and he wants to end his career as Portugal coach, so we have a trajectory in place and we have his history to consider, regarding what his time at FC Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan has meant, so let´s consider this. What will the future hold for Madrid if we factor in what his absence has meant for his previous clubs?

FC Porto: it could be said that of the three clubs that Mou has captained over the last decade, FC Porto may be the most stable of them all. Theyve won five leagues over the last eight years, four Portuguese cups , and four Portuguese Super-Cups. Internationally theyve continued being a successful and competitive participant in the two main European Cup championships over that span. Theyre the Europa League holders after their May 11th win over fellow Portuguese side Sporting Braga in Dublin. In spite of their success, it has been a fairly bumpy road for the men that have tried to replace Mourinho in Oporto. Italian Gigi del Neri never made it to the starting gate and his successor, former Real Zaragoza coach Victor Fernandez, was fired halfway through the season after the club was uncharacteristically mired in third. Current Lokomotiv Moscow coach José Couceiro finished off the year, but it was Dutch coach Co Adriaanse who would bring the domestic double in 2005. Jesualdo Ferreira would win three consecutive league titles before being fired for not winning a fourth. Mourinho protégé André Vilas-Boas would bring European victory and his second Vítor Pereira has continued their vibrant assault on Portugal and Europe. Some of the selections were poorly timed or miscast, but management is ready and willing to cut the cord quickly. The club have continued to succeed because even with the long shadow that Mourinho casts, Porto has successfully reinvented itself continually.

Chelsea: unlike Porto who have no players remaining at the club from when José Mourinho managed their sideline, the club have held on to may of their players, players that formed the nucleus of a club that won back-to-back League titles, an FA Cup and two League Cups under Mourinho. Chelsea are also still a club whose imprints are strictly Mourinhian: strong in defense, tough and athletic, and more comfortable on the counter-attack. When coaches stuck to the template, well they continued winning: see Avram Grant or Guus Hiddink. When their principles changed, or were forced on them by managerial decree, well let´s just say that it is hard to change DNA. With over half of even the current squad players who directly or indirectly played under Mourinho, any coach that fiddles around with the training methods or in their tactics is going to have trouble with up to a handful of players that quite often think they know better. They probably do, but it stifles the inevitable change that all clubs need to go through. The club is in transition, and has been for the last four years, but it is interesting that changes that were resisted under renowned tactician Carlo Ancelotti have been taken to under Vilas-Boas, made more palatable by his presence on the Chelsea bench when Mourinho was manager.

Inter Milan: the nerazzurri are in an even more interesting dilemma. Faced with similar upheaval after losing Mourinho to Real Madrid, they have struggled as well in finding a style of play and even more-so in finding a coach that would lead them. Old nemesis Rafa Benitez was never given an opportunity, Mourinho still very much a presence at the Giuseppe Meazza, and the players were vocally against the Spaniard. Leonardo came handpicked, a friend of Mourinho´s it was told, but was ill-suited for life in the trenches and Gian Piero Gasperini was ill-suited for life in Milan. Ironic that the man whose failure initiated this whole adventure in the first place, Claudio Ranieri, is the new coach for Morattis club. Like Chelsea they are experienced and a bit set in their ways. In the long-run, they may find it more difficult to recover.

Where does Real Madrid fall? If theyre smart theyll hire someone to continue them on the same path. Give him control. Keep the same administrative structure. Maintain the training regimen. Maintain the tactical approach. If history is any indication, the loss of Mourinho will mirror to a certain extent what happened at Chelsea and Inter Milan, and Real Madrid can move on from Jose, but this is Real Madrid. There are plenty of socios at the club who are waiting for the opportunity to trow the revolutionaries out with the rubbish ad return the club to the feudalistic state of old. Im not sure this can survive beyond the cult of personality that revolves around Jose Mourinho.