Are there any parallels between Jose Mourinho's first departure and the current crisis he is experiencing at Chelsea?
The main point of that question answers itself. Unlike 2007, the club's most successful manager has not yet left and who is to say that he cannot find a solution or that the power-brokers at Stamford Bridge will not back him to the hilt this time round.
Of course, it was meant to be all so different for a man who had returned, re-branding himself as the 'Happy One'.
As noted Evening Standard football writer and Mourinho: Anatomy of a Winner author Paddy Barclay told us on Team 33 early last season as he joined us to talk about the Portuguese manager's early beginnings and what influenced his style, philosophy and behaviour, Mourinho had set his sights on overturning the stereotype of being a successful nomadic leaders, who would eventually hitch up the wagons and ride off towards the sunsets of future success in faraway lands.
"At Real Madrid, he fell out with particularly Spanish players. But everywhere, really, there have been problems like that and I think he's determined to avoid them particularly in terms of his internal relationships at Chelsea this time," Barclay said at the time.
"Because that was what I think was a bit of a shock to him, that people turned against him not just in the boardroom where only [Roman] Abramovich really matters. But it appears that even John Terry, whom he'd promoted and who he had a great relationship with and once more has one had begun to think 'I don't know if this is working' the first time round and he's determined now and keeps talking about long-termism."
But the buzzing of a bee in his bonnet seems to have begun for Mourinho in that space of time between winning the last Premier League title and the return of a new campaign that has never got going for Chelsea, who sit down in 15th place from 10 games.
This second spell at Chelsea does fit into the Mourinho pattern of a very good first season, a spectacular second and then a fall off the performance cliff. It was a similar case at Real Madrid, where the third season followed a second one that had seen his side beat Pep Guardiola's Barcelona to the La Liga title. It happened indirectly at Inter Milan where Rafa Benitez presided over that third season as the successor and saw a treble-winning team slip from its pedestal with little delay.
His first period at Stamford Bridge saw that decline played out more slowly and behind the scenes. The first two seasons had delivered consecutive league titles as an era of dominance appeared to be setting itself in stone.
However, the summer 2006 signing of an Abramovich favourite in the shape of then-fading force, Andriy Shevchenko, pointed to issues further up the food chain with Mourinho known to be - understandably - not so enamoured by what appeared and later proved to be an unnecessary deal for the Ukrainian. The addition of his eventual successor Avram Grant as Director of Football was also not a welcome move from his perspective.
A woman sells copies of an evening newspaper , which runs a story on former manager of Chelsea soccer club Jose Mourinho, at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge stadium after Mourinho's sudden departure in 2007 (AP Photo / Akira Suemori)
Similarly when it comes to playing staff, this summer has been a damp squib for Chelsea in the transfer market as the London club failed to make any of the signings that would really push the team on to even greater heights with the arrival of a faded Falcao symptomatic of that.
But back in 2007, those boardroom vs Mourinho problems might not have prevented them from winning that year's cup competitions, however the bad feeling was such that a slightly below par start to the 2007-08 campaign and disappointing 1-1 draw against Norway's Rosenborg in the Champions League was enough to see a quickie divorce by "mutual consent".
But as football journalist Miguel Delaney said on Off The Ball this week, the boardroom situation is far more stable now and those holding the levers of power are more willing to try and make things work.
"From what we've been told, [Roman] Abramovich is still of a mind to keep Mourinho. He wants to do it differently, he finally wants to give a manager time and for all the spin of the past few weeks, one thing Mourinho did say that was correct was that when they both met back in February on Abramovich's yacht, they did discuss that they want to do the long-term thing," Miguel said, although both club and manager are reportedly planning for the after-life should a split become inevitable.
Yet, there is also a sense that Mourinho's behaviour is far more on the surface this time than back in 2007. As Balls.ie's Conor Neville pondered on Team 33 this week, his much-criticised treatment of former club doctor Eva Carneiro in the midst of unnecessary public outbursts about officials and his constant obsession with aiming digs at Arsene Wenger, "the Carneiro case was possibly a symptom of it".
He was always a spiky character of course and if his latest actions are some warped sense of mind games, Barclay did previously note, "he sometimes plays mind games even when he doesn't need to. Sometimes they seem to be for his own benefit to make himself seem better, criticising the referees etc".
But perhaps the main difference between 2007 and now is that a hypothetical sacking or resignation on the back of poor results in the near future would not "stun the world of football" in the same way as the BBC described his previous departure.
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