So, who got it right in the Premier League in 2024-25?
Well, obviously Arne Slot did as he guided Liverpool to the title in his first season in England.
Yes, the Merseysiders were helped by the staggering inconsistency of supposed rivals but that should not detract from their achievement.
Eddie Howe also got it right. To end Newcastle’s 56-year trophy drought and guide the Geordies back into the Champions League demonstrated that he is currently the best English manager in the top flight and someone who can achieve potentially more with the right backing.
For me though, two managers making their mark in the Midlands were the obvious stand-outs.
Unai Emery and Nuno Espírito Santo may narrowly have missed out in securing Champions League football for their respective clubs. They were also beaten semi-finalists in the FA Cup.
But the impact they have had at Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest respectively is truly impressive.
Let’s us cast our mind back to the autumn of 2022 when Villa were languishing just above the bottom three.
Emery came in and immediately turned it around, showcasing the pedigree that was evident long before he arrived on English shores as the manager of Arsenal seven years ago.
While he was never given a real opportunity to make his mark in North London, he has wasted no time during his second stint.
This season Villa have, for the most part, managed their workload despite operating with a smaller squad than their counterparts competing in Europe.
FA Cup semi-finalists, Champions League quarter-finalists – where they pushed winners Paris Saint Germain all the way – and a final place of sixth in the Premier League points to a fine campaign for the Villains.
If they can continue on their trajectory under Emery next season, it promises to be another compelling year and one of progress.
How Arsenal must wonder where they would be now had they given him a reasonable time frame following the retirement of Arsene Wenger (and that is not being disrespectful to Mikel Arteta incidentally).
And so onto Forest who finished 17th the previous season, the place immediately above the drop done.
Few, if any, could have envisaged what has followed in ‘Robin Hood’ country this time. Certainly, no Premier League 2025 betting odds expected them to be in the running for Europe.
They tailed off towards the end and will rue a failure to beat Everton, Brentford and relegated Leicester at home, but their collection of other results has led to an in-house compilation of 2024-2025 Premier League highlights which many a club with much greater resources would crave.
To come up just short and still be in contention for a Champions League place going into the final day of the season speaks volumes. Ultimately, Santo took a team from 17th to seventh, within a point of qualifying for UEFA’s premier competition.
And what memories they had along the way. They inflicted the first defeat of Slot’s Liverpool reign, more impressively doing it at Anfield, with a victory that now appears an indication of what was to come.
More followed, including that first win at Liverpool since 1969, a first win at Manchester United since 1994 and a first league victory over City in 28 years.
Forest are not the most exciting team, happy to absorb pressure and hit teams on the counterattack, almost going against every other modern coach eyeing a European spot.
But everyone loves Nuno at Forest, where he has built something very special, making people forget about the chaos that came before him. One of his great skills is to get his players to work for one another and he gets the best out of the individual and collective. Though they ran out of steam, the potent counterattack of Chris Wood, Anthony Elanga, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Morgan Gibbs-White was one of the best in the league.
My fourth manager of mention is also Portuguese and also stems from fairly close by.
Vítor Pereira arrived in the Black Country the week before Christmas to take over a team bottom of the table with a trip to a relegation rival first up.
Wolves won that match at Leicester and have rarely been concerned with finishing in the drop zone since. It’s been an incredible transformation at Molineux, where Pereira implemented a back three and got Jørgen Strand Larsen scoring.
Between late March and the end of April, Wolves won six matches in a row, as they stormed up the league to mid-table safety. Away from the pitch, Pereira has become a firm favourite in the Black Country, heading to the pub after matches, joining supporters for a pint in the city centre as part of his “first the points, then the pints” mantra,
The achievement may not be at the level of Slot, confirmed this week as the official manager of the year, nor Emery or Santo, but, as far as this SBOTOP writer is concerned, is deserving of recognition.
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