Mikel Arteta should be favourite to win top award that throws up unusual winners

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As end-of-season functions go, one of the glitziest takes place on Park Lane on Tuesday evening. It is the 34th League Managers Association (LMA) Annual Awards Dinner in Mayfair and members from the four tiers of full-time professional football will be recognised before the main winner is honoured.

After a vote from the membership, the LMA Manager of the Year for the 2025/26 season will be announced. It can be any manager from across the divisions, although there has been significant bias towards the Premier League since the award was introduced in 1993.

Only seven of the 33 winners have been given the honour for a season with a club outside the top flight, the most recent instance being Kieran McKenna in 2024. The Ipswich Town manager came out on top in the LMA voting after finishing second in the Championship, edging out Pep Guardiola, who has just won his fourth successive Premier League title - and sixth in all.

It can throw up some quirks, the LMA Manager of the Year award, that is for sure. In the 2000-01 season, Alex Ferguson won a third Premier League title on the spin - and seventh in all - while Gerard Houllier’s Liverpool won the FA Cup, the League Cup and the UEFA Cup.

But that distinguished duo were pipped for the award. George Burley finished fifth in the Premier League with Ipswich and took the LMA honour. In the 2004-05 season, Jose Mourinho won the Premier League and League Cup with Chelsea but David Moyes was the LMA Manager of the Year after his Everton finished fourth.

The following season, Chelsea and Mourinho defended the Premier League title. Steve Coppell won the Championship with Reading and was the top winner at the LMA awards.

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Moyes has been LMA Manager of the Year three times. That is the same number as Guardiola and three more than Mourinho.

Last season, Arne Slot won the award, his peers clearly appreciated how tough it must have been to win a Premier League title in your first season in English football management. This season, Mikel Arteta’s fellow managers should appreciate how tough it is to win the Premier League in your sixth full season in English football management when you have the frustration of several near misses, and competition with the game’s greatest coach to deal with.

Well, it is tough when the world and his wife are waiting for your team to choke. There are many very worthy candidates for the Manager of the Year award.

What Andy Woodman has done at Bromley is exceptional and Lincoln City’s 103 points in League One represented some effort from Michael Skubala. Bouncing back from play-off agony, Frank Lampard’s Championship triumph with Coventry City was hugely impressive and there has been over-achievement in the Premier League from the likes of Andoni Iraola, Régis Le Bris and Keith Andrews.

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Unai Emery has made a late run with Aston Villa’s Europa League win. But Arteta has organised his team to concede only 27 goals in the Premier League and, more impressively, only six goals on their way to next Saturday’s Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest.

He took Arsenal to the final of the Carabao Cup and the last eight of the FA Cup. It has been a stellar season, regardless of the outcome in Budapest. And it has been against a backdrop of scepticism over his ability to succeed at the very top.

His mental fortitude has been shared by his players and that has been the key to Arsenal’s success. Across all four divisions, there are indeed many worthy candidates to be named Manager of the Year by the League Managers Association… but none are worthier than Arteta.

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