Mourinho surprised by award

Koen Freriks

9 mei 2006, 11:00

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho expressed his surprise at winning the Barclays manger of the year award after failing to capture a monthly prize all season.

Mourinho was on Monday night unveiled as the Premier League's top coach after guiding the Blues to back-to-back titles, and he said: "It is a big honour. It's the consequence of Chelsea being champions for the second consecutive year but it is a surprise for me because during the season I couldn't win one single manager of the month.

"We had a start where we won nine consecutive victories but I could not win in August or September. We had a lot of consecutive wins also in December and January but I could not get the trophy. So I was surprised by getting it at the end of the season."