Manager of the Year: 4 candidates Ferguson: He does it again and again. He doesn't have the best players but he's kept them together and again managed to get the best squad. Unless another team is really special (Arsenal's invincibles, Mourinho's Chelsea) his United team are default champions. AGAINST: Nothing, except someone else should win occasionally. Pardew: Won over fans who didn't want him at all. Done a marvellous job on relatively little money. Kept his team going and strengthened again in the transfer window. AGAINST: At least part of the credit should go to the scouting system at Newcastle. Famous for starting well and then fading in his second season. Rogers: Stayed true to the Swansea philosophy and has created perhaps the most attractive side in the Prem. Couple of important scalps for his Swansea team. AGAINST: Inherited a good club in the first place and has just taken it forward. More significantly, seems to have no Plan B in his locker. His team are great when they go ahead but lack incisiveness when they go behind. Lambert: Has taken a club from the bottom of Div One to mid-table safety in the Prem. Very good tactician who is not afraid to switch from Plan A to B to C. Excellent judge of players who can turn FL players into Premier successes. AGAINST: Can be a bit of a tinkerman who lacks stability from game to game. VERDICT: Pardew if Newcastle get into the Champions League. If not, Lambert. Dipsticks Mancini: Can't win the League despite having squillions of pounds. Very lucky manager whose Inter team got trophies on a plate after the scandal in Italy. Perpetually fails in Europe. Squabbles with most of his players and washes his dirty linen in public. Most shamefully, goes back on his word (Tevez) and does this to no purpose (City don't get the league anyway). Awful poncey hair. GOOD POINTS: Can't think of any. King Kenny: Wasted millions on rubbish players. Completely mishandled the Suarez affair and turned many people against Liverpool. Has a kind of paranoid attitude (everybody hates us but we don't care) which might work well at Wimbledon or Stoke but is rather pathetic in such a famous historic club. Face like a dried teabag (which I had thought of this, but I didn't - read it somewhere) GOOD POINTS: Loyalty to his club and players. Misguided and stupid (would you expect Scumbag Suarez to return your loyalty?) but loyal to a fault. McLeish: Utterly depressing manager whose aim at the start of the season is to draw 38 games 0-0 and stay up because of the good goal difference. Managed to turn a team in steady decline into one plummeting towards the Football League. Makes morris dancing look exciting. Verdict: Mancini, just ahead of Dalglish, because of the former's tendency to try to cover his own ass by dumping on his players. Obviously I had too much free time at work today (yes, we have to work at Easter in Vietnam) but be interested to know who you would vote for (or put forward).
Manager of the year would be a toss up between Ferguson & Pardew. United have done really well keeping the pressure on their neighbours and have finally overtaken them. Will soon be their title yet again. Alan Pardew has performed a minor miracle at Newcastle and look good for European football next season. If they make that grade then i would just about give it to AP. Dipstick - King Kenny without a doubt. ok he did not inherit a great side but has succeeded in making them the worst Liverpool team I can recall and I have been watching since 1972!
Manager of the season - Pardew. Dipstick - McCleish now that Colin has returned to his rightful place in the Championship. Both Dalgleish and Mancini seem to be reaping the fallout (apologies for mixed metaphor) of signing the "wrong" sort of players to try and succeed by throwing money at the problem of how to dethrone Man Utd. I have a little sympathy for Mancic as the Africa Cup of Nations really hit them but I presume they get to see the passports before signing the Toure boys. I do think Manu U have benefitted significantl from the Africa Cup as they were not weakened whereas all of their rivals had key players off for a month and then returning tired or with knocks. That said I am sure that SAF factors this in when signing a player. I don't think that PL considers this but our buy British policy helps
I honestly believe Lambert should get it based on the back to back promotions then prem safety probably go to brendan rodgers though... Mancini did his best but just couldnt control all the egos at the club, and it cost them so he's tit of the year.
My manager of the year is between Pardew and Kean. Pardew because of what he's done to the team and they have some excellent players. Kean because of the stick he received earlier in the season. But Pardew just edges it for me. Dalglish easily wins dipstick of the year. The Suarez incident could not have been dealt with as badly as it was. Awful summer signings that the media were raving about saying they are great and will finish top three. Glad I've been proven right and Henderson, Downing and Carroll - a total of £75mill - are not doing as well as the media expected. Just some very overrated players signed for an overinflated, desperate price. Need to take a leaf out of Pardew's book. Even Manchester City and Chelsea wouldn't sign these players.
Totally agree Yet you still get scousers phoning up 606 defending 'King' Kenny because apparently they're "in a better situation than they were under Woy" - who had all of about six months and sod all money to build a squad Hodgson is a FAR better manager than Dalglish, and more importantly an infinitely better MAN and I find the current stuation at Anfield absolutely hilarious I wish Weaver was still around, he absolutely hates the scousers and must be loving it more than anyone
I didn't really know a great deal about Roy Hodgson until this season, other than Liverpool bounced him out of the door. I have listened to a good number of his interviews this season though and he really comes across as a really nice and genuine man, and honest in his assessment of games and incidents. I have grown to like and respect him and he has done a pretty reasonable job with the Baggies.
Best: Sir Alex. As much as I want to say Lambert, credit has to be given to Sir Alex winning the league with an inferior squad and spending far less than his rivals. To me it's simple, if Sir Alex were manager of MCFC then MCFC would be champions. Worst: King Kenny. Wasted a shocking amount of money, poor home record and 86 miles behind their bitter rivals United. He doesn't seem to know his best system, the side looks clueless at times. The Suarez saga has damaged the image of the entire club and Kenny was largely to blame for the shambles.
I wouldn't call Mancini a dipstick it must be an impossible job to control all those ego's and from the start there has been people wanting him to fail. For me I'm going to say Dalglish and it's mainly down to his attitude with the Suarez incident, which was nothing short a disgrace and I can tell the owners are absolutely livid with him, even the fans are running out of patience if he wasn't an Anfield legend they'd be calling for his head. My manager of the season is Pardew everyone wanted him to fail from the start exactly like Mancini but I'd say his got it worse, the Newcastle job is the poison chalice. His tamed a set of fans who only seem to think a local born person can lead their club forward.
I suspect the OP is referring to PL manager of the year, which is why the binners are keeping quiet, they lack the knowledge and experience to comment
I think you've all let Mancini off rather easily, but maybe that's a personal bugbear of my own. Am surprised Pardew has won quite so much praise and also that the King has garnered quite so much scorn. And the point about the Wolves board is well made. The current manager is blameless and McCarthy at least has the virtue of honesty in a pretty dirty business.
Fergie probably should be the manager of the year - after being hammered by City, the team has dug in and ground out the results. It remains to be seen what will happen when Giggs retires, assuming Fergis is still there, as their relationship reminds me of the picture of Dorian Grey. Dipstick of the year? Kenny has to be in the running. But for me it has to be Mark Hughes. When he got the job he talked loudly about how QPR will be a team competeing in Europe in the next few years, completely ignoring that the fair play rules would automatically exclude them - never mind what the team was doing on the pitch.
