Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho believes only champions should receive the player of the year awards

Eden Hazard and Luis Suarez lead the running for this season's honours but Gareth Bale swept up last year's without Spurs winning a single trophy

Jose Mourinho believes the player of the year awards should go to those who win the league, with Luis Suarez and Eden Hazard in the running for this year's award (GETTY IMAGES)

Jose Mourinho believes that the footballer of the year awards should go to players who assist their side in winning the league title, with the Chelsea manager suggesting that Gareth Bale shouldn’t have won last season’s PFA Player and Young Player of the year.

The former Tottenham winger was also awarded the Football Writers’ trophy for his superb form last season that led to his £86m move to Real Madrid. However, Spurs finished 17 points behind Premier League winners Manchester United as well as coming up short in the FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League.

The Evening Standard reports that Chelsea’s midfielder Eden Hazard is in the running for this season’s honours, although the bookmakers’ favourite remains Liverpool’s Luis Suarez, with the Uruguayan still the top scorer so far this campaign.

 “Individual awards should be for the winners,” said Mourinho. “Last year, it happened to Gareth and not to a Manchester United player because Gareth was more than special.

“He had a fabulous season but normally individual awards are a consequence of a collective work, a team big award, which means winning the competitions.

“If I voted, I would always vote for a player who belongs to the champions. The most pre-eminent player must win the League. What happened with Gareth was outside the way I understand football. People should try to choose one of the champions. Football is about teams, not players.”

However, the issue is complicated by the voting for the PFA and FWA awards taking place before the end of the season. Mourinho thinks this is something that should be addressed.

“When a player from the champions gets the award, it’s normal,” he added. “The biggest award is the title. They should be waiting for the champions, and maybe you have to wait [for the voting] until the last game to do that.”