It was the cruellest of heartbreaks. When you get winded without being punched. The kind that gets inflicted by that girl you really like. Where you prepare (read: set yourself up for) failure on “that” date. And you find yourself ready to cry.

And here I’d kidded myself that I’d be writing a column about the fallacy of Hull City placing Phil Brown on gardening leave. (What? Don’t they have enough money to just fire him?)

I suppose it was fitting that the pain and sadness was inflicted by the person that brought my beloved Chelsea the most success in recent history. Jose Mourinho was under no illusions when he arrived at Stamford Bridge for the second leg of the UEFA Champions League last 16 tie. He was still the “Special One”. After all, he pointed out, the wall in the club’s museum said so.

And so it was to be this past Tuesday. We tried too hard. Cynics will point to the mistakes, the rued chances, the stupid off-the-ball scuffles, but it was plain to see throughout. But we simply tried too hard – those signs were clear on the players’ faces. And we weren’t nearly focused enough.

What was Didier Drogba thinking? Yes, Nicolas Anelka was having a bad night. Why? What about Chelsea’s defence who threw themselves at fairly suspect tackles without fear of reprisal?

The yellow (and red) cards finally got shown.

Ancelotti was spot on, and gracious in defeat. “We didn’t play how we wanted… Inter played a very good game, with strong defence and good counter-attack. We didn’t play how we wanted.”

Decisions didn’t go our way. Not one. Even a Manchester United supporter admitted this, in and amongst a flurry of swearing from our table at the Joburg supporters club.

It’s a funny thing, supporting a football team. For some reason we work ourselves up into a frenzy. Most of the supporters I spoke to had had a restless Tuesday at work. There was no concentration, and countless hours of productivity lost. A few of us didn’t even feel like eating when we woke up.

Wait a minute. If you take a step back and think about this logically – and I’m a fairly pragmatic guy – there is simply no reason for this bizarre behaviour.

And yet there is. That’s what makes it so beautiful. It’s about the absolute unashamed adoration of a club. No questions asked.

The Champions League is the greatest prize of all. If our team could forgo the two league titles for one European triumph, I am dead certain 90% of them would take it.

And if you believe the hype around his appointment, it was the one Carlo Ancelotti was hired to achieve. The script did not play out as we had expected. But you pick yourself up.

Thankfully, what we’ve heard from Roman Abromovich in recent months suggests he has become far more realistic in both his personal and the club’s ambitions.

There are, believe it or not, positives to be taken from this. Ancelotti is a great manager. But surely he needs to be given time to mould the team in his image.

There are no doubt players he’d like to add, and players he’d like to get rid of. Based on Tuesday’s performance, one could add quite a few to the latter list.

He needs to be given this time. Ahead of Tuesday’s encounter Florent Malouda spoke about the need to “write history” and to forget about days past.

Its time the Stamford Bridge faithful had a new Special One.