The winner of the Premier League ‘Manager of the Season’ award is pretty inevitable these days, with eleven of the past twelve winners being in charge of the team that won the title, yet when there’s this much predictability, it does raise the question of whether there’s much meaning in this award.
Mikel Arteta picked up the 2025/2026 accolade having led Arsenal from second to first, spending hundreds of millions in the process — yet Régis Le Bris, who guided Sunderland to seventh in the league having been told by seemingly everyone in the sport we’d go straight back down, was overlooked.
Others who joined him included Andoni Iraola, the departed Bournemouth head coach who secured European football for the Cherries for the first time in their history, and Keith Andrews, who had a brilliant first year in management for Brentford…but nothing.
Le Bris not being recognised is both a frustration and a relief, but the annoying thing for a head coach that’s revitalized the club and turned us into a top half team is that it’s arguably the story of the season.
On the other hand, keeping as much of our success out of the spotlight can only be a good thing.
Granit Xhaka and Robin Roefs also went relatively unnoticed in the end-of-season accolades, and the same can be said for them — particularly Roefs, who enjoyed a superb season during which he kept ten clean sheets in thirty five appearances.
Keeping things low key and grounded is a staple quality of Le Bris, and he has been key to our success through implementing this on his players both this season and last. “Calm” and “collected” are two ideal words to describe the boss, it’s fair to say.
Arsenal have taken the majority of the plaudits, as expected, and Manchester United are being praised for getting back into the Champions League. Elsewhere, Aston Villa and Bournemouth both had brilliant seasons, with the pundits crowing about them.
To an extent, and although it’s nice that we aren’t being talked about a great deal, it does feel slightly irritating that the successes of Le Bris and the club aren’t getting the exposure they deserve.
If we could look twelve months into the future and see we’ve had another relatively successful season, with a steady league run and a flirtation with the knockout stages of the Europa League, perhaps we’ll be getting a lot more attention, and maybe I’ll be thankful that we went under the radar.
Positive attention is unusual for Sunderland.
It’s not too long since we were making national headlines for falling down the divisions or going nearly twelve months without a home win. However, any good news stories 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.
From the outside looking in, it seems that we’ve created an ethos whereby the players and staff are all singing from the same hymn sheet — the proof is in European qualification and only twelve defeats all season.
