Adieu then Jose Mourinho, the fun for all the non-Chelsea Premier League fans is over. Santa Claus will not be able to deliver his schadenfreude-filled gift, after all on Christmas.
A quick look below the line in most online media, and the trend is obvious – every football fan not affiliated with Chelsea thoroughly enjoying themselves as the Premier League champions' season unfolded.
No doubt, most (again, non-Chelsea) fans would have asked Santa Claus for the gift of schadenfreude to continue, but then down swooped the Grinch to put an end to what was building up to be a Christmas party to remember.
Had Sam Allardyce and his Sunderland side beaten Chelsea on Saturday, the online community would have gone crazy. Be it Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City or Arsenal fans – all were united on this one.
Such is the effectc Mourinho has. You either love him or loath him; and the only way to love him really was if your club was being managed by the Portuguese – and even that, sometimes, wasn't enough as a majority of the Real Madrid fans will attest to.
One army that was always on Mourinho's side in England, though, was the media. No matter what he said, who he insulted and how ridiculous he sounded, there was the British media, fawning over his every word and sprouting a chuckle every time the Chelsea hero cracked a "joke".
What was telling as Chelsea's season unravelled, though, was that even the English media started to call Mourinho out on his obvious mistakes. The rantings and ravings weren't funny anymore; the blame game just plain petty; the use of the word "I" multiple times in almost every interview, borderline, well.....
For instance, Mourinho's dig at Iker Casillas, saying sarcastically the goalkeeper can now try and win the one trophy he did not have in his cabinet, after Chelsea consigned FC Porto to the Europa League would have been met with laughter and a "ha-ha now that is some brilliant and funny banter (read trolling)" from the media. This time, though, with Mourinho looking increasingly desperate as his Chelsea team nosedived in the Premier League, most of the scribes called it for what it was – just plain petty.
That is the problem with Mourinho. As great a manager he is, he brings with him this "it is always about me and only me" aura, which is the main reason why he was not chosen for the hotseat at Old Trafford by Sir Alex Ferguson, who is made to look like a tame cat when compared to some of the ramblings and antics of Mourinho and who always put the club ahead of everything, including himself.
The now-former Chelsea manager first really stepped over the line in February, 2014 when he called Arsene Wenger a "specialist in failure". Then came the obvious dig at the Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini, calling him Pellegrino. That was followed by the unnecessary dig at Rafa Benitez and his weight, with the deplorable treatment of Eva Carneiro and Jon Fearn for just doing their jobs proving to be the beginning of the end for Mourinho.
Maybe the players felt the treatment of their popular physio was unacceptable; or maybe they just had enough of Mourinho's drama-filled reign. Either way, the Chelsea manager lost the dressing room. From training hard on pre-matchdays, the players would go missing when it really mattered, and the decision from Mourinho to blame the players for their calamitous defeat to Leicester City on Monday, while also adding that it was his "phenomenal work" alone which had given Chelsea the title last season, forced Abramovich's hand.
Even with the severance package, firing one manager is a lot less expensive than creating a whole new team.
It is a pity, though, because when Mourinho returned to Chelsea in the summer of 2013, and claimed he was now the "Happy One", for a while, it looked like we would get the good, funny, charming Jose. The specialist in failure insult, however, brought out that other unfortunate aspect of his personality out, and once it was out, there was no going back.
