To understand the man, sometimes you have to have met him as a boy.

As the flares were lit around a raucous Stadio San Paulo in Naples, it was hard not to think that Andre Villas-Boas’ career as Chelsea manager was also going up in smoke.

Andre Villas-Boas has dismissed suggestions he will be sacked as Chelsea manager if his side lose at Napoli tonight and insists he is already planning for next season.

FROM high in the south terrace or Curva Sud of the Stadio San Paulo, Napoli’s ultras hang a bespoke banner at every game. Stitched carefully into the sky-blue fabric is the poetic epithet: “I have seen him, now I can die”. The tifosi need not say who they mean.