Jose Mourinho pipped to LMA Manager of the Year award

This is not to be confused with the Premier League Manager of the Season award, which Jose won last week.  Though that award was also officially handed out last night, at the same ceremony, even.  This took me a while to figure out.  Both the LMA award and the Premier League award are sponsored by Barclays, too.

In any case, as Jose Mourinho was busy at the Chelsea Player of the Year awards ceremony, telling us his "fictional" story of the 2014-15 Premier League season, the managers' union — i.e. League Managers Association (LMA) — were having their own little awards party as well.

Mourinho had been one of the nominees for their top prize, alongside Arsene Wenger, Alan Pardew, Garry Monk, Ronald Koeman, and Eddie Howe.  Only Howe was not a Premier League manager, though he will be one next season after guiding AFC Bournemouth to the Championship title and a first-ever promotion to the top flight of English football.  And exactly because of those accomplishment, it was he who was voted by all the other managers as Manager of the Year.  It's hard to argue with Howe's claim for the prize.  In six years, he has led Bournemouth from the depths of League Two all the way to the Premier League.  He took a year-long break at Burnley in the middle when Bournemouth were still in League One, but returned home to finish the job.

Howe becomes just the second non-Premier League manager to win the award since its inception in 1994.  Incidentally, the first time was also during a Mourinho year, with Steve Coppell (Reading) winning it in 2006.  Mourinho also lost out in 2005 when David Moyes of 4th-place Everton won it.  Unlucky, I suppose.

There was one more Chelsea connection for a prize:  Phil Parkinson won the FA Cup Manager of the Year Award, in large part due to his 4-2 win at Stamford Bridge.