The Special One Returns

Jose Mourinho usually gets his way and so when the Champions League draw for the last 16 was unravelled there was a certain inevitability about it.

Mourinho's Porto defeated Manchester United in the same round en route to lifting the prestigious European trophy in 2004 and the Portuguese will come up against his old foes again this year.

Earlier in the week Mourinho revealed that he hoped to get an English club in the next round, with Liverpool being the other possibility.

But despite Mourinho's instinctive confident personality the pressure will be far greater when he takes his Inter Milan side to Old Trafford in February compared with what he experienced 5 years ago when he was still just a face in a crowd of European managers.

Now he is at the forefront of one of the biggest clubs in the world, at a club who are desperate to win the Champions League after a longer wait for England to bring the World Cup home - the Italian aristocrats last won it in 1965! His former Champions League winning side were underdogs, never considered a bet to win the entire thing and so the pressure wasn't there.

How times have changed. English football fans, and especially the English press, feel that the Portuguese is really one of their own and was heavily tipped to succeed Steve McClaren when the England national team job became advertised.

Mourinho has a good record against Ferguson

The press and Mourinho exert a mutual relationship of love. The media relish his press conferences and Mourinho marvels in the attention. 'The Special One' is box office and he will revel in his first return to England since his departure from Chelsea just over a year ago.

Although Mourinho will take the back pages, there are mouth watering reunions around the draw. Another former Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri, now Tinkering the Juventus side will see a return to Stamford Bridge before welcoming his former employers to Turin.

Chelsea will be delighted to have avoided Barcelona who are on top form and sit at the peak of La Liga but Juventus will be a stern test. Ranieri was much loved by Chelsea fans but will want to make a point against his old club who kicked him out unceremoniously after the Italian guided them to second place in the Premiership and semi-finals of the Champions League.

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez will make a return to Real Madrid, who are now managed by ex-Spurs boss Juande Ramos. Ramos, like Ranieri, will be keen to make an impression and prove he is no hapless figure he so often cut at White Hart Lane.

Finally Arsenal will encounter Roma and the London club should, if they play to their best, put the tie beyond Roma's reach in the first leg but with Arsenal's inconsistency this season the tie could swing in Roma's favour early on.

But despite all the exhilarating fixtures, only one man will be making the back pages this February.