For the first period it seemed to be Phil Brown with Hull City. But then came the team talk on the pitch antics and Hull City hit the wall.
Currently it is between Roy Hodgson and Gianfranco Zola for me. Roy Hodgson turned around Fulham from a relegation battle team to Europa Cup chasing team. He had to form a team from the scratch.
Zola on the other hand took over West Ham in very dire straits and sailed them to a bid on 7th spot. Given his short career as a manager, that looks quite an accomplishment to me.
I intentionally exclude managers of top 4 from this. Let's keep it that way.
Can't argue with Hodgson and Zola.
:-)
Tony Pulis should surely get a mention. His team might not play the prettiest football (I'd argue top flight football is the exception rather than the rule in terms of style anyway) but he's guided them to a second season with some creditable results. And they have shown they are capable of getting the ball down and playing when they need to.
Ultimately, it would be Hodgson for me. Remembering where Fulham were when he took them over, he's worked wonders for the club.
:-)
Martin O'Neill is worth a mention too. He took Aston Villa one step ahead. This is not a shocker tho. We saw it coming from the previous season.
Yeah, the progress AV made was more or less expected. If he could have taken them to CL, then that would be some achievement.
If we extend this question to Europe, Guardiola must be the manager of the season. Now, I hesitate to name a big gun's manager as the best due to funds and squads available to them. But this guy did a treble in his first managerial stint. Would you call anyone else?
Felix Magath won Bundesliga with Wolfsburg. That's almost the same thing as Mark Hughes winning EPL with Man City.
in the premer league i say it would have to be alex mc lesh (birmingham city manager) and then arsen wenger.
Man, this topic is almost a year old. Here, let's have a new one:
http://this11.com/topics/show/2898/whos-the-manager-of-2009-2010-season
