Manager of the Year race heats up as Pulis backs underdog candidates
The League Managers Association’s annual awards, announced Tuesday, feature a surprise clash between top-flight underdogs and the usual title-winner favorites. Arsenal’s Arteta and City’s Guardiola lead the Premier League shortlist, but Brentford’s Andrews and Bournemouth’s Iraola are rewriting the rules on patience and resilience.
A shake-up is brewing in the League Managers Association’s annual awards, where the traditional dominance of title-winning coaches faces its sternest challenge in years. The ceremony in London on Tuesday will crown the best in English football across men’s and women’s competitions, but this time the narrative has split wide open.
The usual suspects—Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta and Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola—head the Premier League shortlist after leading their clubs to commanding performances. Arteta’s Gunners sit two points clear of City with six games remaining, while Guardiola’s side remains in the Champions League hunt. Both are favorites to claim the top prize, continuing a trend where the division’s top two teams have claimed the award in all but four of the past 32 years.
Key Points
- ✅ Arteta and Guardiola lead the Premier League manager race
- ⚡ Keith Andrews at Brentford defied 100-1 relegation odds
- 💡 Andoni Iraola’s three-year rebuild at Bournemouth pays off
Yet buried beneath the glitter of the title race, two names have emerged as the antithesis of the instant-dismissal culture gripping football. Keith Andrews, in his first season as a manager, has steered Brentford to the brink of a first-ever European qualification, defying pre-season predictions that had the Bees as firm relegation candidates.
💡 Pro Tip
Managers facing early pressure should look to Andrews’ approach: build a clear identity, buy smart, and ignore the noise. His Brentford side plays a cohesive, pressing game that masks limited resources.
At Bournemouth, Andoni Iraola has spent three seasons reshaping a club that has lost key players almost annually. His side finished sixth last term and is now on the cusp of a first-ever European final, having narrowly missed out on a Champions League spot. Iraola’s journey—marked by 10 winless starts before his first league victory—underscores a stubborn belief in process over immediate results.
| Manager | Club | Key Achievement |
|---|---|---|
| Mikel Arteta | Arsenal | Title-challenging consistency |
| Pep Guardiola | Manchester City | Champions League and title fight |
| Keith Andrews | Brentford | European qualification odds defied |
| Andoni Iraola | Bournemouth | Three-year rebuilding project rewarded |
Daniel Farke at Leeds United and Regis le Bris at Sunderland have also bucked trends. Farke, sacked in November, returned to the dugout and steered Leeds away from relegation, while le Bris preserved Sunderland’s Championship status in a season of financial strain. Their work highlights a growing recognition that managerial impact isn’t measured in weeks, but in seasons.
📋 By The Numbers
- 10 — Number of winless starts before Iraola’s first league win at Bournemouth
- 100-1 — Pre-season relegation odds for Brentford, according to bookmakers
- 3 — Consecutive seasons Iraola has improved Bournemouth’s league position
The LMA’s awards have long reflected football’s obsession with instant success, but this year’s shortlist reads like a manifesto for patience. For every title-winning coach, there’s now a counter-narrative: the manager who refused to be fired, who sold his best players yet still delivered consistency, who turned a club’s culture around in plain sight.
- 📊 The LMA awards have only deviated from the title-winner rule four times in 32 years
- 🔍 Andrews’ Brentford sit sixth on 62 points, a club record for points in a single Premier League season
- ⚠️ Bookmakers initially priced Brentford’s survival odds at 50-1
As the awards dinner approaches, the message is clear: football’s most valuable currency isn’t trophies won in a single season, but trust repaid over time. Whether the LMA panel agrees remains to be seen—but the argument has already been won in the stands.