Jose Mourinho: Unwittingly unlocking the Fernando Torres paradox?

Return of El Niño

All the while, Mourinho watched from afar, as his Real Madrid side flirted with greatness before succumbing to the Portuguese’s infallible ego. In need of the love and loyalty that stokes at the embers of something deep inside the Special One, he arrived at Stamford Bridge in a whirlwind of promise.

And while the jury is still out on his callous treatment of Juan Mata – their best player by a mile – his game plan for Torres has been spot on, and one that is only beginning to pay dividends.

A plethora of Chelsea managers have treated Torres with the proverbial velvet glove, except that the treatment proved to be grossly ineffective.

The shadow of Abramovich’s £50 million investment always lurking in the shadows, they were all too meek in their bid to shape a protective bubble around an under-fire Torres. His attempts to outdo an inspired Drogba were hindered by just how brittle his mentality had become, as susceptible to breakage as his managers made him out to be.

I am not saying that it was all their fault – these managers only did what they thought was right, backing their fragile treasure.

All Mourinho has done is show the courage to try a radically different approach. His tough love has galvanized Torres from the listlessness that he had indulged in for years on end.

Blunt and forthright in his words, Mourinho’s statements in the press made his position on Torres clear – perform or perish. What does the Happy One (yes, he does have a few of those nicknames) care if he was worth an astronomical amount of money?

He was back in the loving arms of his Chelsea, and any man who wouldn’t contribute to the applause that he so craves would not find himself worthy of a place on the stage. By so slyly taking the focus off Torres, while bringing the player himself right back down to earth, Mourinho has possibly awakened something deep and primal in Torres.

Even if he was impressed by the fitness the Spaniard showed in training, Mourinho made it clear that Romelu Lukaku’s emergence was only good for the team. The Belgian’s consequent departure to Everton seems more an attempt to be in the reckoning for the national team at next year’s World Cup, and not anything that Mourinho envisaged.

Samuel Eto’o may have found a semblance of the predatory instincts that made him a feared customer not so long ago, but Torres’s live-wire performances – even if there have only been a couple – have meant that he is now in pole position to take his rightful place at the head of Chelsea’s attack.

There will be an air of great expectancy when Torres steps out onto the pitch again, only because people know just what he is truly capable of, and not purely on the basis of his shows over the past month or so.

The Spaniard himself will be feeling much the same way. Curiously, it is his reputation that is driving Torres forward now, when that self-same reputation has held him down for so long now.

The Special One? The Only One? The Chosen One? The Happy One?

Yes. Yes. Yes. And, oh yes.