The season before last was a nightmare.
Even the bluest Blues who believed that our greatest ever manager should receive special dispensation, ended up laying the greater share of responsibility on him.
One of the biggest worries was what kind of person would want to come in to a situation that contained so many warning signs.
The answer was Antonio Conte – a brave, brilliant man, winner of three national titles in a row in his home country of Italy, a footballing and organizational genius who proceeded to take a bunch of malcontents and, with few additions, drag them back to the top.
Today it is clear to all and sundry that, while the former Chelsea manager may have created his fair share of issues, the vile behavior of the Chelsea hierarchy is endemic to the club, capable of taking even the world`s greatest talents and ruining them.
So, in the increasingly speculated event that, having driven Antonio Conte crazy, withheld the tools for him to do the job, leaked all manner of garbage to the media daily, The Don is not long for SW6, what on earth kind of a person would be willing to take on this pit-of-vipers of a job?
Well, nobody any good for a start. If the Diego Simeones of this world wouldn`t touch the job before, why would they touch it now?!
Certainly no young genius (if this board had the wit to pursue one) – a Marco Silva of Watford – say. What would be the point: any manager in the Premiership knows that CFC ruins managers.
Or perhaps, the CFC suits are hopefully monitoring the suddenly fragile Zidane situation at a struggling Madrid? In their dreams! I`ve heard the great Frenchman is a lot of things but career-suicidal or stupid is not among them.
In the end, it will be a toss-up between two very definite types: the big old name in trouble – from gambling debts or an expensive divorce perhaps – willing to come and go through the motions for the money; or an out-of-work retread like the once beloved Carlo.
Either way, all flickering hopes of a glorious footballing dynasty for many years to come will disappear with Don Antonio`s departure.
The football people will have tried and failed at the Stamford Bridge Corporation, while the northerners, Man City, Man United and North London`s Spurs, will have the league to themselves for the coming decades.