Guardiola unlikely to sweep the boards as fellow managers

IT was no surprise on when it emerged yesterday morning that Manchester City were the club with the best representation on the PFA’s Team of the Year, with members of their titlewinning squad taking up five of the 11 positions.

It could have been more. Leroy Sané and Raheem Sterling might feel aggrieved that they were not named alongside Kyle Walker, Nicolas Otamendi, David Silva, Kevin de Bruyne and – making his PFA Team of the Year debut – Sergio Aguero. Fernandinho can feel hard done by too.

The fact of the matter is that as City prepare to take more points, win more games and score more goals than any other team in the Premier League era, they deserve almost every accolade going. All of them, perhaps, but one.

Most people would agree that Pep Guardiola (inset top) is the most progressive and innovative coach in the Premier League, if not world football. He is the driving force behind his side’s accomplishments this term, a club which has previously struggled to make the most of their significant backing.

Yet Guardiola’s brilliance as a coach is precisely why all but a few pundits named City as comfortable title favourites eight months ago. Few foresaw the style and verve his side would play with or the slew of records they would threaten along the way, but their Premier League crown was largely expected.

If Guardiola builds a dynasty at the Etihad and leaves a lasting imprint on English football, he will be the manager of the decade, but is his success this season enough to be named manager of the year?

The answer is probably, yes – the Premier League’s Manager of the Season award is consistently won by the title-winning coach. Only Ipswich’s George Burley in 2001, Tottenham’s Harry Redknapp in 2010, Newcastle’s Alan Pardew in 2012 and Crystal Palace’s Tony Pulis in 2014 have claimed it without the league trophy under their arm.

Even though eagle-eyed City fans will notice neither Roberto Mancini nor Manuel Pellegrini were recognised for their triumphant campaigns, every truly dominant title-winning side was, from

Jose Mourinho’s Chelseas to Alex Ferguson’s best Manchester United teams. It seems unlikely that Guardiola will also be overlooked. There are two ‘manager of the year’ awards at the end of each season though, and the other often takes a slightly different tack. The LMA Manager of the Year gong is voted for by the managers themselves and can recognise any coach working in the four fully-professional divisions. It has only been awarded to the top flight’s title-winning coach in eight of its 25 seasons, and that ratio was lower still until the recent achievements by Claudio Ranieri and