From the despair of Naples to the joy of Munich

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

To understand the full scale of Chelsea’s achievement in winning the Champions League in such dramatic style on Saturday night, you had to be in the bowels of the Stadio San Paulo, Naples, late on the night of February 21.

There, the club’s smartly dressed stars slunk out to their coach, barely exchanging a word with each other.