You've an excuse to be a bad loser, but why is Jose Mourinho such a bad winner ?

I've never been able to cope very well with people who sulk or go in to a mood. I had too many years of having to endure one of my younger brother's moods when I was a child and he could go in to a mood for Britain, if only it was an Olympic sport. Although he has grown out of it now he's grown up (I'm sure his wife would disagree though).

Anyway, people who go in to moods because they have lost or missed out on something can be irritating, but you can at least understand why they do it. Bad losers have an excuse.

So what is Jose Mourinho's excuse for being such a bad winner. After winning against Everton yesterday, closing the gap on Manchester United and seeing his team score three terrific goal, you'd imagine that he could go home, look at Chelsea's bank balances, think about how many world class players he can buy in the January transfer window and be happy with life.

But no, Jose can't do that. Instead he had to launch a tirade of defamatory statements aimed at Andrew Johnson, a player who was clearly fouled in the area yesterday, Sky Sports commentators agreed, indeed the only person who felt it wasn't a penalty was Jose Mourinho, oh, and the referee. So again, you'd have to ask, what is his problem ?

I remember the 1997 general election in North Norfolk when Norman Lamb was narrowly defeated by David Prior by 1293 votes. After a hard fought campaign and a long count finishing at five in the morning, Norman congratulated David Prior on his win, and went to shake his hand. David Prior turned away, shook the hand of the Labour candidate and refused to shake Norman's hand. I remember at the time that it seemed petulant and childish, and that moment often spurred me on in the years from 1997 to 2001 when I was helping to unseat Mr Prior, resulting in a 483 vote victory for Norman Lamb in 2001. At that count, which finished at about the same time as 1997, Norman offered his hand again, David Prior shook it. I think David Prior probably regretted not doing the same in 1997.

That day in 1997 taught me a lesson. Try to be a good loser, but never, never be a bad winner. It is the very worst kind of self indulgent, self important petulance. It's a lesson I wish Jose Mourinho would learn too.