“You’ll only last six months with him. That I can guarantee.”



“Well, perhaps you’re right. But, my, what a six months it will be.”



“Oh, certainly, dear — for all of us…”



No, this was not Ed Woodward warning Daniel Levy and Tottenham Hotspur about the perils of hooking up with Jose Mourinho. This was the Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor, just divorced from Richard Burton for a second time, warning his new lover Suzy Hunt that it would all end in tears.



Hunt seemed to know that, but she married him all the same. They lasted five-and-a-half years, which was longer than anyone had imagined. Taylor’s second marriage to Burton had lasted a matter of months. Burton likened his two marriages to Taylor to living on the edge of an exciting volcano. “It was marvellous,” he said, “but it could be murder.”



That is often how life with Mourinho sounded, certainly...