But it is worth asking: as a fan of, not just an opposing team, but a bitter rival - how do I feel about the Matalan-clad tactician's exit? On one level, it might seem obvious. He was - still is, I expect - an arrogant, self-serving attention-seeker; whiny, obnoxious, far too willing to throw the blame elsewhere, too obviously in love with himself and his appearance, unfathomably smug and (of course) much, much better looking than me. All that, on top of managing the new-look Russian-blood-money-funded Chelsea, a team which for a couple of seasons looked like it had ruined football for everyone; buying themselves into apparent invincibility, forcing transfer fees back stratospherewards after the brief interlude of sanity after the ITV digital collapse in the process, and all the time playing with a dour quality that made Ged Houllier's glum defensiveness seem like a carnival of attacking football. There was a lot to hate about Mourinho's Chelsea, and by extension the man himself; it's not controversial to say that few Liverpool fans will be sad to see him go.
On balance, though, I think I may be one of those few. Yes, watching Chelsea did, occasionally, make me want to roll naked in a bath of vinegar and broken glass to distract myself from the horror. Yes, they won far too much, and yes, they did it with money that (insofar as my rudimentary understanding of the post-Soviet Russian economy can tell) was the rightful property of millions of impoverished peasants rather than one scrubby-bearded smirking oligarch. But - on the flip side - not since Wee Gordie Strachan left Southampton has the Premier League been host to a manager so consistently amusing and provocative; and not since the late, lamented Brian Clough has there been one who was so entertaining as well as being successful. And, let us not forget, Jose has been successful, and not just because of the money. Daring triple substitutions at half-time, wholesale changes to formation mid-game, a willingness to experiment; it didn't always work - witness a dismal defeat to us in the semis of the 2006 FA Cup, playing Paolo Ferreira in midfield, or losing to Newcastle, also in the Cup, after making three changes at the break and then losing two players to injury - but more often than not it did.
Let me draw a parallel. I think that any true English football fan - as opposed to a fan of a football club - would want, say, Leo Messi to come to the Premiership, or would be sad to see Cristiano Ronaldo leave it, even if the team involved was not their own. There is a simple joy in watching someone so good at what they do, a joy that you want to be able to experience every week rather than once in a while on some Spanish football highlight reel or YouTube. I think Mourinho is one of those - one of those rare figures in football to whose press conferences you are actually willing to listen, because he might say something interesting. At the very least, you know that he isn't going to come out with the usual variations on "Yeah all credit to the boys they did great and at the end of the day it's three points in the bag isn't it thanks Garth".
All that said, there is an argument that, if you're given half a billion pounds and told to make a football team, surely you'd want to make an attractive one. It's like playing Championship Manager except in real life, and no Champ Manager player models their team on George Graham's Arsenal circa 1992. However, Mourinho was given a job to do - to win football matches and competitions. Whatever else you may say about him, he did that admirably. No matter who comes in to replace him, Abramovich and his loathsome reptilian sidekick Peter Kenyon might well find that they have a prettier football team but fewer trophies. On both counts, that's certainly something for the rest of us to hope for.