This tweet made me laugh: "Taking no credit away from Pulis but Rodgers deserves it. Challenged for the title all year with a tiny squad and finished 2nd. Mad."

Some of them really are deluded. Liverpool spent around £300m in transfers & wages compared to our measly (not even)£60m.

Brenda took them from 7th to 2nd, TP took us from bottom to 11th. A feat never previously achieved by any manager. Previously the highest a change of manager had managed to take a team was 3 places above where he found them. TP took us up 9 places!

However, as Dan Theolmesdaleroad said: "The remarkable way in which he skilfully guided them from 1st place to 2nd in only a couple of weeks was truly a joy to behold." - Maybe it was this that won Brenda his award.

And I see signs of half remembered days, I hear bells that chime in strange familiar ways

Why don't you sign up to a Sunderland site and you can be amongst your own.

Rogers deserves it on what basis? He took a club with some very good players and not remotely afraid of spending big money into the top four from an underachieving seventh place the previous season, against a group of teams who all had the major distraction of Europe while Rogers' team had no distractions at all. Furthermore, with that free run Rogers failed to fully capitalise by winning the Premiership entirely due to his own shortcomings as a manager, through both the failure to recruit adequate central defenders in the transfer market or to play tactically intelligent football in the two crunch games at the end of the season, a result in either of which likely would have given them the title. Basically, Rogers put out a team that was pleasing on the eye and did well, but hardly reflected managerial brilliance. Bottom line: Pellegrini, Pulis, and Poyet all had better claims than Rodgers to the award and Mourinho and Martinez arguably did.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

Rogers has done well, but I think his success is much more a reflection of how poorly preceeding managers had done with Liverpool, and he did have several years to achieve this. Liverpools achievements aren't quite as phenominal as they appear at first sight, the success of Sturridge and Suraz up front distract from the fact that the team were incompetant in defence. For every two goals they scored, Liverpool conceeded 1.

Liverpool are a club that should be competing for champions league and title season on season. That they weren't was down to p*ss poor managers before Rodgers came in. He steadied the ship, rebuilt it and got Liverpool back to the position they should have been in.

Personally, Pulis deserved the LMA Manager of the Year and Poyet the Premier League Manager of the year, simply because both have achieved not only against expectation, but achieved almost miraculous transformations of teams.

Managers of the season for me, in order.

Pulis
Poyet
Martinez (His achievements at Everton eclipse those of Liverpool).
Rogers / Pelligrini

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

On that basis, give it to Pellegrini, as he actually won something, City's football is even easier on the eye and his defenders knew how to defend.

I blame James Beattie. Pulis was starting with a deficit.

Edited by Stuk (13 May 2014 12.22pm)

Optimistic as ever