Special one waits for a special offer

Jose Mourinho would appear to be on special offer. Available at the right price and ready for delivery to England this summer.

Right now, he would almost certainly say it ain't so. He reacted furiously to the publication of an interview that suggested a return to the Barclays Premier League could not come soon enough, insisting he intended to honour a contract with Inter Milan that, because of an extension he signed in May, runs to June 30, 2012.

But those closest to the former Chelsea manager insist he is far from content in Italy and, given half a chance, he would be back here in a flash.

While nothing is straight-forward with the self-anointed Special One, his most likely suitors at Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool might just want to consider how they would respond should he suddenly become available.

Would they sit back and allow him to manage a major rival? Or would drastic changes be made to accommodate him? Mourinho has said he longs for stability; that he wants to stick around long enough in his next job to make a lasting impression and build something more significant. He says Sir Alex Ferguson is a one-off but he wouldn't mind being to a club what Arsene Wenger has been to Arsenal.

Right time

That means it could be some time before the brightest young manager in Europe is back on the market. That if they want a guy who has won five league titles in seven seasons in three countries, not to mention a European Cup and countless domestic cups, it could be now or never.

Liverpool and City continue to stand by Rafa Benitez and Mark Hughes, and nobody at Old Trafford is about to ask Ferguson to step aside. But nobody admires Mourinho more than Ferguson and it would be fascinating to see if the 67- year-old would choose to synchronise his retirement at United with the Portuguese's departure from the San Siro.

Outbursts

Ferguson being Ferguson, he would probably prefer that date to be June 30, 2012. But he sees Mourinho as one of the few men with the ability, and personality, to succeed him and so, it seems, do key members of the Old Trafford hierarchy.

There was a time when Mourinho seemed unmanageable. When his outbursts damaged not just his own image but that of Chelsea. He was branded an ‘enemy of football' by one senior Uefa official for his scathing criticism of referee Anders Frisk, and Roman Abramovich did not appreciate how his manager's outbursts were hindering Chelsea's progress in being welcomed to European football's top table.

At United, however, they see changes in Mourinho. They see a more mature manager with more humility after his experiences at Chelsea and Inter, and he was charming when he went to Old Trafford last season for the first knockout stage of the Champions League. They also see him as someone chief executive David Gill could work with.