Merely a tiresome bore? Jose Mourinho must learn to lose gracefully

Already a proven winner, Jose Mourinho must now become a specialist in failure, too.

When the Chelsea manager used that phrase last year to take a cheap swipe at Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger, he meant it in a mean, small-minded way. It was one of many occasions where Mourinho has allowed toxic emotions, not lucid reason, to be his master. All told, the verbal and occasional physical outbursts that are as much part of Mourinho’s career as his triumphs paint a portrait not of a manager in easy control, but of an almost pathological need to burn bridges and make enemies.

Which isn’t a terminal problem, at least not in his industry, for managers who win. Because football is so fixated on success in the next match, it always finds room for bad behaviour that gets results. Victory absolves most sins. Even when he did wrong, Mourinho’s trophies in Portugal, England, Italy and Spain seemed to make him right. In the short-termism of football, the ends ultimately appeared to justify Mourinho’s means and loud mouth.

But take away victory, and the shield it provides disappears. Mourinho cannot, as he claims, be the best in his business when Chelsea’s non-starting Premier League season is turning that brag into a lie. Continuing to boast in defeat of “a big self-esteem and a big ego” merely makes him a tiresome bore.

When his teams were winning, the “us against the world” siege mentality Mourinho cultivates looked motivational. But complaining about referees and supposed anti-Chelsea treatment simply becomes a feeble excuse when his methods stop working.

And even winning couldn’t have justified the public humiliation Mourinho heaped on his medical staff when Chelsea started their Premier League title defence, such as it is, with a 2-2 draw against Swansea. That was simply nasty, hot-headed behaviour that hints of someone who stops being a team player when the going gets rough.

In short, when the ends no longer justify the means, then the means must change. Instead of blaming others, Mourinho must turn his critical eye on himself. He must understand that managers and clubs aren’t judged solely by how well they win but also by how well they lose.

Mourinho famously claimed that winning the Champions League in 2004 made him “a special one.” But that will only be true if he now learns to become special in defeat, too. That doesn’t mean being resigned to failure. But it does mean not acting like a brat when it happens.