Carlo Ancelotti is the manager who once rejected the chance to sign Roberto Baggio, football's most famous Buddhist.
After two seasons in England, it is apparent why: the Italian has more than enough Zen calm not to require any more at his club.
Perhaps a dozen years in the employment of erratic billionaires such as Gianni Agnelli, Silvio Berlusconi and Roman Abramovich has demanded it.
Despite his famous fondness for food, he has displayed a delicate touch in picking his way through the minefields each has primed.
It takes an unusual man to accomplish that and Ancelotti is that welcome rarity, a manager who is magnanimous in defeat and modest in victory. With his dignified diplomacy, hints of humour and attacking football, he has done more for the reputation of Chelsea, a club often deemed arrogant arrivistes, than any of his immediate predecessors.
None of which may preserve his position.
The feeling is that Abramovich will deem Ancelotti's crime of failing to win a trophy this season merits dismissal. Few others concur, but then Chelsea are not a democracy.
It is not his personal popularity that should keep Ancelotti in employment, however, as much as more relevant circumstances: his record, his rapport with the players and the absence of alternatives.
To win a double - the Premier League and FA Cup - in his first season in England was an extraordinary feat, even at a club of Chelsea's means.
To take 25 points from the nine games that preceded Sunday's defeat to Manchester United was proof of his capacity to rally a team that had appeared in decline.
To do it without Ray Wilkins, his sacked assistant, by his side and with the complications caused by Abramovich's signing of the misfiring Fernando Torres suggests he can produce results in awkward circumstances.
Chelsea's reliance on an ageing core is a concern, but there is evidence of evolution under Ancelotti. Salomon Kalou has emerged from the fringes to enjoy his most productive season at Stamford Bridge; David Luiz, despite a nightmare at Old Trafford, and Ramires have provided greater vitality in defence and midfield.
If the basic blueprint remains Jose Mourinho's, it is partly because the club's institutionalised short-termism makes it hard to rip it up and start again.
Ancelotti has been pragmatic enough to harness his players' strengths and observe Abramovich's wishes and sufficiently proficient to take Chelsea close to a second successive title. That is no mean feat.
Moreover, were he to go, who would replace him?
Only three managers are unarguably his superior and each appears beyond even Abramovich's grasp: Sir Alex Ferguson will not leave Old Trafford; when Pep Guardiola departs Barcelona, it is unlikely to be for a club with Chelsea's ethos, on or off the pitch; and Mourinho is the man he sacked in 2007 and whose oft-voiced desire to return to England seems rather more dependent upon Ferguson's eventual retirement than a swing of Abramovich's axe.
If the demand is for a proven Champions League winner - and it seems to be - it leaves a select band. Few have the combination of attributes Ancelotti possesses: the fondness for good football, a record of never failing at any of his five clubs and the equitable temperament to deal with owners' whims, however strange.
Should confirmation be required, it is supplied not only by Roma's wish to appoint their former player but the probability that Real Madrid will renew their interest in Ancelotti when Mourinho's tumultuous reign ends.
In the meantime, the 51-year-old, with typical honesty, has conceded Chelsea could have done better this season. True as that is, it is scarcely cause for dismissal. His counterparts at other clubs concurred when Ferguson called it "astonishing" he could go; and, while the United manager recently tried to blame the media for Ancelotti's precarious hold on his position, finding a journalist who believes he should be sacked is no easy task.
Because, within football, there may only be one man with that opinion. And he seems to be the Chelsea owner.
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The Premier League staged its own unofficial block-of-the-season contest on Saturday, an endurance event where the participants were separated by 200 miles.
Phil Bardsley's valiant efforts for Sunderland, including a 90th-minute header off his own line to deny Bolton Wanderers' Kevin Davies a winner, were impressive, even if a game with little at stake meant few noticed.
Christopher Samba's Herculean feats in the Blackburn Rovers rearguard, however could have far greater consequence. Three forceful but perfectly-timed interventions in the space of about 30 seconds at Upton Park could contribute to West Ham United's relegation. They certainly brought a new meaning to Samba-style football.
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Robin van Persie extended his own record at the Britannia Stadium on Sunday by scoring for an eighth successive away game in the Premier League but Arsenal's 3-1 defeat to Stoke City illustrated that his fine finishing is increasingly in vain: the Gunners have only won one of the last seven games in which their vice-captain has scored.
While too many others have lost form over a traumatic 10 weeks, the Dutchman has proved a welcome exception. But it shows that even a goal-a-game striker needs support from his colleagues.