Chelsea’s José Mourinho has been named the Premier League manager of the season. Mourinho guided Chelsea to their first Premier League title in five years which completed a domestic double, the club having beaten Tottenham in the Capital One Cup final at Wembley in March.
Mourinho, in his second spell at Stamford Bridge, scoops the award ahead of fellow nominees Ronald Koeman, Garry Monk, Nigel Pearson and Arsène Wenger despite not winning a single manager of the month award during the season.
“It is, as you like to say in England, the icing on the cake, but the cake is more important than the icing,” Mourinho told Sky Sports. “The cake is the Premier League, the cake is the objective of the manager, of the technical staff, of the squad, of the club, of the millions of supporters, and I work for the cake, I don’t work for this.
This is the third time Mourinho has won the award after he was also recognised after Chelsea’s league triumphs during the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
“The problem in football is that you are eating one cake and you are still thinking about the next one. This is permanent,” he continued. “So I enjoy this cake very much, I have missed it for a while because the last one was in the 2005-06. But to go back to England and win it again is a fantastic feeling.”
Mourinho succeeds Tony Pulis, who was named 2013-14 manager of the year after he masterminded Crystal Palace’s remarkable escape from relegation.
The Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard has been crowned the Premier League player of the season. Hazard’s team-mates John Terry, Cesc Fàbregas and Nemanja Matic were also nominated for the award, as were the Manchester City striker Sergio Agüero, the Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea, the Tottenham striker Harry Kane and the Arsenal forward Alexis Sánchez.
The latest accolade completes a remarkable season for Hazard. He was also named the Professional Footballers’ Association and Football Writers’ Association player of the year. Hazard was unable to receive his FWA award in person after emergency dental surgery prevented him from attending Thursday’s ceremony.