The winner of the Premier League’s ‘Manager of the Season’ award is pretty much inevitable these days, with eleven of the last twelve winners in charge of a title-winning team, however with this much predictability, it raises the question of whether there is much meaning to the award.
Mikel Arteta won the 2025/2026 trophy having led Arsenal from second to first, spending hundreds of millions in the process – yet Régis Le Bris, who has guided Sunderland to seventh in the league as everyone in the game has been told we will go down, is being ignored.
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Others who have joined him include Andoni Iraola, Bournemouth’s best coach who secured European football for the Cherries for the first time in their history, and Keith Andrews, who had a good first year in charge of Brentford…but nothing.
Le Bris’ lack of recognition is both a frustration and a relief, but something that upsets the head coach who has revitalized the club and turned us into a top team that is arguably the story of the season.
On the other hand, keeping most of our success out of sight can only be a good thing.
Granit Xhaka and Robin Roefs were also overlooked in the end-of-season honours, and the same could be said for them – especially Roefs, who enjoyed a superb season where he kept ten clean sheets in thirty-five games.
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Keeping things grounded and focused is a fundamental quality of Le Bris, and he has been key to our success by applying this to his players this season and last. “Calm” and “collected” are two words to describe the boss, it’s fair to say.
Arsenal took most of the prizes, as expected, while Manchester United were praised for their return to the Champions League. Elsewhere, Aston Villa and Bournemouth have both had good seasons, with pundits raving about them.
To some extent, and while it’s nice that it’s not talked about as much, it feels a bit annoying that the achievements of Le Bris and the club aren’t getting the exposure they deserve.
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If we can look twelve months into the future and see that we’ve had another relatively successful season, with a steady league run and a flirtation with the knockout stages of the Europa League, maybe we’ll be getting more attention, and maybe I’ll be grateful that we’ve gone under the radar.
Good attention is rare at Sunderland.
It hasn’t been that long since we made national headlines by falling apart or going nearly twelve months without a win at home. However, any good news about us this summer will be hard earned after a season of hard work, success and structure.
Le Bris and some of our players will be in the spotlight this summer, and for good reason.
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From the outside, we seem to have created an ethos where players and staff are all singing to the same hymn sheet – proof is European qualification and only twelve defeats all season.
