It's a dog's life for Jose's lawyers

Most employment lawyers would give their right arms to negotiate a £15m exit package.

But Jose Mourinho's departure from Chelsea appears to have been done with the minimum of lawyerly input. We'd be delighted to be put right on this, but the pint-sized Portuguese is rumoured by football sources only to have used his agent George Mendez.

So are UK lawyers out of favour at Stamford Bridge? Roman Abramovich's divorce was handled under Russian law with no regard to the feelings of the hordes of matrimonial lawyers available in London. What's more, his consigliere Bruce Buck is not a Brit but a US partner at Skadden Arps.

At least Mourinho used a UK lawyer - in the form of Elizabeth Robertson, late of Peters & Peters - when it mattered most. Robertson, if you remember, was called in to represent Mourinho's dog Leya on an immigration matter.

It makes you proud to be British.