Klopp Crowned Premier League Manager Of The Year

Jürgen Klopp has been crowned the Manager of the year by the Association of Premier League Managers.

Liverpool won the Carabao Cup and FA Cup this season by beating Chelsea in penalty shootouts at Wembley, and finished a point behind Manchester City in what proved to be a dramatic title race.

Klopp collected his accolade, known as the Sir Alex Ferguson Trophy and voted for by the full membership of managers across all the divisions, at the LMA Awards dinner in London on Tuesday evening.

Speaking on stage, the German said: “It is a great honour and it was an insane season.”

“The last match day when only two games were meaningless and in the rest, we all played for absolutely everything. It was not the best outcome for us, but we are already over it.

“When you win a prize like this you are either a genius or you have the best coaching staff in the world and I am here with all of my coaching staff; they know how much I appreciate them,” Klopp added after receiving the award from Ferguson.

Klopp, who won the LMA’s Premier League manager of the year award, said: “This being voted for by my colleagues is obviously the most important prize you can get. I don’t believe in individual prizes in football generally, it is a team sport and I would be nothing without these boys there. It is all about what we can do together and what we did together.”

Klopp still has an opportunity to win the Champions League for a second time this season, with his side facing Real Madrid in Saturday’s final in Paris. He was not the only Liverpool manager to be recognised on the night, as Matt Beard won the Women’s Championship manager award.

The Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes, was named the Women’s Super League manager of the year after leading her team to the Double.

“Being a football manager is an absolute privilege,” Hayes said. “Winning the title in front of fans your people, the lifeblood of your club there is nothing more exciting to live for.”

Other award winners at the ceremony included Fulham’s Marco Silva, who won the Championship manager of the year. Wigan’s Leam Richardson and Exeter’s Matt Taylor took the League One and League Two prizes respectively.

The QPR academy coaches Chris Ramsey and Manisha Tailor were named joint winners of the Kick It Out and Sky Inclusion Champion award. Tailor is the assistant head of academy coaching, working under Ramsey, and is the first woman of South Asian heritage to hold such a role in English football.

Kath Phipps, the long-serving receptionist at Manchester United’s Carrington training base, received the LMA Service to Football award.