jimharri said:
Ian Holloway can't understand how MP didn't get the manager of the year award;
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/ian-holloway-column-manager-year-3557484" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/ ... ar-3557484</a>
Fair do's to Holloway. He gets a lot of stick on here, but I don't mind him. He does come across as a bit ''village idiot''-ish at times, but there are far more reprehensible managers out there.
Ian Holloway column: Why Manager of the Year SHOULD have been Manuel Pellegrini
17 May 2014 08:00 PM By Ian Holloway
Millwall boss Ollie reckons man who made Man City champions in his debut season deserved LMA gong - and that Pulis also had better case than winner Rodgers
Shaun Botterill
It'll do... Pellegrini has the Premier League trophy to console him after LMA snub
Manuel Pellegrini might do the Treble for Manchester City next season. Perhaps then he will get some recognition from his peers.
I couldn’t believe it when I heard last week that City’s Chilean boss had been overlooked by the League Managers’ Association (LMA) for the Manager of the Year award.
How can a man, who lifted both the Premier League title and the Capital One Cup during his first season in England, not be honoured for those fantastic achievements by the very people who know just how hard it is to be a winner?
Brendan Rodgers took the LMA crown after taking Liverpool to within touching distance of the club’s first championship in 24 years.
I was one of those “neutrals” who was hoping that the title would return to Anfield during a season that marked the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy.
In the final reckoning, Liverpool finished two points and 14 goals away from achieving their dream.
Brendan did, indeed, prove what a fantastic young manager he is, by taking a team that had finished seventh last season so close.
But – and I honestly don’t mean any disrespect to Brendan or his club – Liverpool finished second. Man City took the title – and that makes them the top team in the country, and Pellegrini the best manager. And they also won a Wembley cup final.
Like a boss: LMA members chose Liverpool's Rodgers as their Manager of the Year
There’s no disputing that Liverpool punched above their weight. But, if that was the criterion for making the award, then surely the honour should have gone to Tony Pulis?
I am delighted Tony took the Premier League manager of the year award after keeping Crystal Palace in the top flight.
That really was a miraculous piece of management that deserved to be recognised, given the predicament Palace were in when I left them in October. Finishing second with a massive club like Liverpool just doesn’t compare.
In my opinion, the top honour should have gone to Pellegrini.
No doubt people will claim that what City achieved was par for the course, given the money they have spent. But Liverpool have hardly been paupers in the transfer market down the years.
And we all saw, with Roberto Mancini last season, that having that wealth and weight of expectation brings unique problems.
Under Pellegrini, City have become a team united. He has brought peace and harmony to a squad that had been at war with itself last year.
Great escape: Pulis kept a Palace side most felt were doomed up with points to spare
City have played spectacular football – despite being without Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Yaya Toure for long periods. They hit 102 Premier League goals, scored another 54 in the knock-out competitions, and still had the second-best defence in the country.
Looking back at past winners of the Manager of the Year award, I notice that Arsene Wenger is the only foreigner to have won it in its 21-year history.
When you think what Jose Mourinho achieved in his first spell at Chelsea and what Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Di Matteo did after him at Stamford Bridge, that’s quite astonishing.
Perhaps it’s down to the fact that we like a plucky loser in this country.
Whatever the reason, Pellegrini has been the best manager in England this season - and he has THE trophy to prove it.
Who SHOULD have won Manager of the Year?
Pellegrini
Pulis
Rodgers
