Abramovich's trophy bride will be an imperfect match

WHAT a lovely couple they make. Jose Mourinho and Chelsea always were a match made in heaven.

Jose Mourinho returns to Chelsea

WHAT a lovely couple they make. Jose Mourinho and Chelsea always were a match made in heaven.

So were Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, of course, but even after their brief, turbulent second marriage, they always longed for a third.

It is only natural to regard the second union of Mourinho and Chelsea as the sequel to a tumultuous, doomed but riotously enjoyable love affair. It will surely end in tears, given that both he and Roman Abramovich seem to be even more combustible and more impulsive than at the time of their acrimonious split in September 2007, but the issue is whether, like last time, they can bring each other such gratification in the short term that every bit of pain feels worthwhile.

Mourinho was all smiles yesterday, back in the familiar surroundings of Stamford Bridge - "my club", "my Chelsea", "my players".

Those smiles promise to last all summer and at some stage over the weeks ahead, whether at his first press conference next Monday, on the pre-season tour to Asia or, if the honeymoon continues into the new Barclays Premier League season, we will find ourselves wondering and perhaps, in some cases, concluding that Mourinho has mellowed.

Managers like Mourinho do not mellow. They go through periods where they are blissfully happy and then revert to a war footing.

When it is Chelsea against the world, Abramovich will love it, provided results - and of course performances - measure up to the owner's notoriously high expectations. When it is Mourinho against the world, as it was in his final nine months at Stamford Bridge first time around and as it was for much of his tenure at Real Madrid, the dynamics within the club tend to change.

It is a marriage of convenience, fraught with risk and an expectation that it cannot last, but then the same could be said of any managerial appointment under Abramovich. Since Mourinho's previous tenure, which lasted just over three years first time around, there has been Avram Grant (eight months), Luiz Felipe Scolari (eight months), Guus Hiddink (three months), Carlo Ancelotti (just short of two years), Andre Villas-Boas (eight months), Roberto Di Matteo (nine months) and Rafael Benitez (six months). If you are incapable of long-term relationships, you might as well at least find someone who will satisfy you in the short term.

But it is hard to know whether to be reassured or alarmed by Mourinho's claim that he and Abramovich reached an agreement "within five minutes after some short and pragmatic questions". Five minutes? To return to the remarriage analogy, this would be like a divorced couple meeting up through Facebook, ripping off each other's clothes, dusting down old engagement rings and rushing off to Gretna Green.

Mourinho spoke of being "much more mature" now and being "more ready to be in a club and stay for a long time". Perhaps the experience in Madrid has taught him that - those close to him suggest it has - but if that is the case, he has done a lot of growing up in a short space of time. His final season with Real, after he signed a four-year contract last summer, was a story of damaging disputes with the club's hierarchy and with his players, including some of those, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe, who were seen as loyalists.

There is no evidence to suggest that Mourinho has become a more serene, stable figure. That is never what he has been about. You do not hire Mourinho if you want serenity and stability or the "holistic" approach referred to by Manchester City, who, like Manchester United, gave him a wide berth. You hire him if you want to win trophies. The Mourinho appointment confirms that Abramovich, for all the club's talk of pursuing something long-term, remains more interested in trophies - not the FA Cup and the Europa League but the Champions League and the Premier League.

Chelsea have won just one Premier League title in the past seven seasons since Mourinho led them to back-to-back successes in 2005 and 2006. He made it look easy, instilling in a young squad a fervent desire and an unwavering tactical discipline. The problems arose in his third season, when Abramovich destabilised the club by appointing Grant to work above Mourinho.

Mourinho might like to convince himself that the Chelsea of 2013 are more like the Chelsea he joined in 2004. Well they are not. The club will spend money in the transfer market this summer, but, mindful of UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations, they will no longer be Europe's big spenders.

He will be answerable not only to Abramovich but to Michael Emenalo, the club's technical director, and quite possibly to Marina Granovskaia, who was once the owner's PA. And he will be expected not just to win, but to win beautifully, optimising the creative talents of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Oscar and Andre Schurrle, who is expected to join from Bayer Leverkusen.

With the right improvements Mourinho should be able to turn Chelsea into title challengers again. Perhaps even title winners, given that the new managers at City and United will be going into the unknown.

What is certain is that next season, at least, Mourinho's should be a unifying presence. As for what happens after that, whether it is one year or two years down the line, whether it is with more trophies in the cabinet or not, it seems fairly certain that the marriage will hit the rocks again.

To suggest so seems less a bold prediction than a statement of the obvious. For as long as the love endures, it will feel like the best thing they ever did. The challenge will be to make sure they look back without regret when, inevitably, it ends in tears.

The Times