Chelsea infighting: Deal or no deal, even victory at Anfield on Saturday might not stop Jose Mourinho turning his back on Chelsea. That may seem unthinkable but there are lessons from history about his willingness to walk out on a club if he believes his authority is being undermined, his instinct for the dramatic having led him to quit his first job in coaching at Benfica six years ago.

Mourinho had been in charge at Benfica for fewer than a dozen matches when a 3-0 win over their bitter rivals, Sporting Lisbon, prompted him to demand a contract extension. The point was not the money, nor the length of his existing deal - he was demanding a statement of faith from his board.

Jose Manuel Capristano, Benfica's vice-president for football between 1997 and 2000, recalled yesterday there had been rumours that the fans' favourite Antonio Oliveira, who had brought Benfica the title in 1994, would be appointed in Mourinho's stead. "After (recent) elections the new president Manuel Vilarinho kept saying that his coach would be Toni.

"He (Mourinho) wanted the players to be sure he would be the coach after the end of that season. And after he beat Sporting 3-0 he asked for a contract extension as a proof of trust from the board because he didn't want the players to think that he was being replaced at the end of that season. He was always a man with a very strong personality and if someone got in his way - which is winning, winning and winning - he would turn his back and leave. That's what he did."

For Chelsea followers there are similarities between the situation at Benfica and the current position. Respected managers such as Marcello Lippi, Sevilla's Juande Ramos and Guus Hiddink are being talked about as potential successors to Mourinho and in the absence of a statement from the Portuguese it is impossible to tell how he views the situation.

The recent signs are that, with Chelsea's chief executive Peter Kenyon labouring to sustain cordial relations between the manager and his employers, there has been a rapprochement. But, beyond being proud of the unwavering support of Chelsea's match-going fans, as seen in Saturday's 4-0 win over Wigan, the true state of Mourinho's mind is not known.

With a centre-half set to be signed in the coming days - talks are advanced with Bolton for Tal Ben Haim but the Lancashire club want to find a replacement before sanctioning his departure - one of Mourinho's demands will be satisfied. But Capristano believes that Chelsea's board, having failed to offer him support in the transfer market until now, are playing with fire.

"Now at Chelsea he has a point," added Capristano. "It doesn't make sense that such a rich club needs to play with Paulo Ferreira or Michael Essien as centre-backs. Benfica has a budget 20 or 30 times lower than Chelsea but it has three good centre-backs; Chelsea has only John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho. I don't know the problem inside and I don't speak to Mourinho any more but I assume he may feel he's being put under pressure by the board."

The man who lost Mourinho at Benfica believes it is only when the mercurial manager has gone that his abilities can truly be appreciated. Vilarinho's triumph in the 2000 elections precipitated Mourinho's departure. "If it was today Mourinho would not leave Benfica," said Vilarinho in a previous interview. "(Put me) back then (and) I would do exactly the opposite: I would extend his contract. Only later I realised that one's personality and pride cannot be put before the interest of the institution we serve.

"I tried to solve my mistake and make him come back later. I couldn't do it and I drew my own conclusions: everything happened because, as I see it, Jose Mourinho never trusted me much. And that led him to a self-protection attitude that made the deal impossible."

It is unclear whether Roman Abramovich will pay heed to Vilarinho's lament, particularly as he feels his finances have had at least as much bearing on recent success as Mourinho's managerial talents. And the new deals being offered to Terry and Essien, along with that recently agreed by Didier Drogba, ensure that several key Chelsea players will be tied down irrespective of this manager's movements.