League Managers’ Association (LMA) yesterday announces its manager of the year awards for the season with many known names in the winners list, but one of the most predictable names was Manchester United’s retiring manager Sir Alex Ferguson who has been named as the manager of the year on winning his twentieth league title in his decades old soccer career. The legendary manager has always been a source of inspiration for others with his aggressive statements while defending his players; hence he is termed as the real manager among all. Other winners include Malky Mackay; for Championship League, Gary Johnson; for League One, Martin Allen; for League Two, Roberto Martinez; for FA Cup along with Phil Parkinson and Roberto Di Matteo who were given the merit awards. Manchester United finished its EPL season with a 5-5 draw against West Brom which also happened to be Ferguson’s 1500th match in charge. Ferguson has been most successful manager of all time by winning as many as 38 titles in his career that spanned for more than two decades. He is being taken over by Everton’s David Moyes, who is again a great maestro of the game and has served Everton for more than one decade; hence it is like a legend is taking over another one with expectations to perform at par with the retiring manager.
Responding about his award, Ferguson said, “It has been overwhelming. The club has been fantastic and congratulations to West Brom with the way they handled yesterday. I think Steve Clarke should get an award because anyone who scores five against United deserves it.” He was actually right, coz United defense has been rock solid throughout the season and if a club could manage to fire five goals against such a strongest defense, its manger surely deserves an award!
LMA chairman Howard Wilkinson also talked about these awards and said, “There is no doubt that the LMA Annual Awards are perceived as the most accurate measure of a manager’s ability because there are no better judges of your performance than your peers.
“Finding words to adequately describe the monumental levels of achievement and the indelible legacy Sir Alex Ferguson leaves in the game is nigh on impossible. This evening’s award adds yet another record to that list, making him the only person to secure the much-coveted LMA Manager of the Year Award for a fourth time.
“David Moyes, his choice of successor to the Old Trafford throne, has won it three times and I know that Sir Alex will hope and believe that David goes on to equal and surpass the new record.”