(CNN) -- "The English media created an icon, an almost perfect human being." - soccer agent Paulo Texeira. Above all else, Jose Mourinho just needs to feel loved again. It has been in short supply during the final, painful throes of his tempestuous tenure as coach of Real Madrid. Beaten to the La Liga title by Barcelona, blasted out of the Champions League by Borussia Dortmund and battered by the press in Madrid, this is a season he's decried as the worst of his career. The 50-year-old leaves looking visibly drained, with dissent dripping from the dressing room and insults ringing in his ears, rivals lamenting him as a "scourge" on Spanish football.
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Jose Mourinho is returning to coach Chelsea six years after leaving London
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The Portuguese coach's three-year tenure at Real Madrid ended in failure
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Mourinho ready to build a dynasty at Chelsea, according to a Portuguese journalist
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One of his former players says Mourinho is perfectly suited to English football
Little wonder then that Mourinho has opted for a return to Chelsea, the English side that helped the @placeholder etch his name into the fabric of modern football folklore as "The Special One."
Relations with the notorious @placeholder press veered between difficult and impossible; Mourinho's desire to shape the club the way he wanted combined with his confrontational style jarred with many.