Mauricio Pochettino says he is "proud" of his Tottenham players after their title dream ended at Stamford Bridge and vowed that this season was only "the first step."
Leicester were confirmed as Premier League champions after Spurs' squandered at two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Chelsea, leaving the Foxes seven points clear at the top with two matches to play.
The draw meant Spurs secured a top three finish for the first time in Premier League history and, given their vastly superior goal difference, they can wrap up second place with one win from their final two matches against Southampton and Newcastle.
Pochettino paid tribute to Leicester and their manager Claudio Ranieri, but praised his players for their season.
"First of all, congratulations to Leicester, Claudio Ranieri, all the players and staff and, of course, the supporters. It was a great season and they deserve the title. Next season, we need to be stronger than this one and try to be in the race for the title again," Pochettino told Sky Sports.
"We are disappointed but proud of my players. The season fantastic and we still fight for second place. We have three points gap to Arsenal, we need to keep the gap and we need to be ready for next week.
"We need to feel proud of the players, congratulate our players, we're fighting for that and thank you to the supporters for their support."
Spurs led 2-0 at halftime after goals from Harry Kane and Son Heung-min but they were lucky to have 11 men on the pitch after Kyle Walker kicked out at Cesar Azpilicueta and Mousa Dembele appeared to eye-gouge Diego Costa.
Both incidents were missed by referee Mark Clattenburg and the duo could face retrospective action from the Football Association.
Chelsea hit back after the break with goals from Gary Cahill and Eden Hazard, and Spurs completely lost their heads in the final 15 minutes, finishing the match with a Premier League high nine yellow cards, while Erik Lamela could also face punishment from the FA after appearing to stamp on Cesc Fabregas.
Pochettino refused to condemn his players and said the way a fired-up Chelsea approached the match was a compliment to his side.
"It was a derby and we fight to win the title and Chelsea fight to try to win. We feel very proud about our players, our season. How Chelsea took this game and showed big, big respect to us -- it's the way we want to follow and carry on for the next season," he added.
"There's nothing to say. We respect them. We have full respect for them. Its a competition, it's football -- we're men, they're men. We need to show we are strong. It was a good lesson for us. We're the youngest squad in the Premier League. Now the changing room is very disappointed and sad and this is a feeling we need to feel for the future."
Spurs have the youngest squad in the Premier League and a new state-of-the-art stadium on the way, while Pochettino is set to sign a new five-year deal this week.
The Argentine insisted this season was just the beginning for the club, adding: "Of course this was my message -- we feel very proof of this squad, of these players, and our supporters need to feel proud too. We have massive potential for the future, this was the first step.
"It's true we are disappointed because we had the opportunity to play for the title. At the same time, we need to be realistic and congratulate our players too. We feel proud, the season was fantastic but still we have two games ahead."