Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has been named the Barclays Manager of the Season, with his star man Eden Hazard scooping the player award.
The Portuguese boss helped the Blues to their first Premier League title in five years after a dominant season which has seen them top of the table for a record 274 days.
It is the third time Mourinho has been awarded the Manager of the Season accolade – the others also came after Premier League title triumphs in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Mourinho has won the award despite not winning a Manager of the Month prize all season. Indeed, he has only won a monthly honour three times during his two spells at the club.
Speaking to Sky Sports after receiving the award, Mourinho said: ‘This is, as you like to say in England, the icing on the cake. But the cake is more important than the icing.
‘The cake is the Premier League, the cake is the objective of the manager, of the technical staff, of the squad, of the club and of millions of supporters. And I work for the cake, I don’t work for this. I am the manager of the season and obviously I’m very happy with this.
“The problem is that you are still eating one cake and you are thinking already about the next one. This is permanent so I enjoy very, very much this cake.
“I missed it for a while because the last one I won was 2005-2006 but to come back to England and win it again is a fantastic feeling.”
Speaking later at his press conference ahead of Sunday’s match with Sunderland, Mourinho added: “I was never manager of the month, so I wasn’t waiting for this. But obviously I’m happy with it.
“I think it’s a club trophy, not an individual trophy. It’s me, my assistants, my players, everybody who works with me. It’s not something you get on your own. I worked for the cake, not the icing.
“The cake is much more important, and the Premier League is the real cake. But to be the manager of the season is nice for me and my people.”
Belgium international Hazard, 24, has enjoyed a sensational season, scoring 14 Premier League goals and contributing nine assists.
He has played in all 37 of Chelsea’s league matches but will miss Sunday’s final match at Stamford Bridge after emergency dental surgery to remove three wisdom teeth.
The surgery meant he missed Thursday night’s Football Writers’ Association awards ceremony, where he was named Player of the Year.
Chelsea will lift the Premier League trophy after Sunday’s match and are planning an open-top bus parade on Monday.
Mourinho and Hazard were chosen by a Barclays panel that included former players and journalists. Also shortlisted for the manager’s award were Ronald Koeman, Garry Monk, Nigel Pearson and Arsene Wenger.
Hazard was selected from a shortlist of eight that also featured his Chelsea team-mates John Terry, Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic, Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero, Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea, Tottenham striker Harry Kane and Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal.
