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Pellegrini Should Of Got Award: Holloway

Bristolian Ian Holloway has used his Mirror Column to say how Mauel Pellegrini should of won the LMA manager of the year award ahead of Liverpool's Brendan Rodgers.

He also climed that Tony pulis had a bigger claim to the award than Rodgers.

In his Sunday Mirror column he wrote: " Manuel Pellegrini might do the Treble for Manchester City next season. Perhaps then he will get some recognition from his peers.

I couldn’t believe it when I heard last week that City’s Chilean boss had been overlooked by the League Managers’ ­Association (LMA) for the Manager of the Year award.

How can a man, who lifted both the Premier League title and the Capital One Cup during his first season in England, not be honoured for those fantastic ­achievements by the very people who know just how hard it is to be a winner?

Brendan Rodgers took the LMA crown after taking Liverpool to within touching distance of the club’s first championship in 24 years.

I was one of those "neutrals” who was hoping that the title would return to Anfield during a season that marked the 25th ­anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy.

In the final reckoning, Liverpool finished two points and 14 goals away from achieving their dream.

Brendan did, indeed, prove what a fantastic young manager he is, by taking a team that had finished seventh last season so close.

But — and I honestly don’t mean any disrespect to Brendan or his club — Liverpool finished second. Man City took the title — and that makes them the top team in the country, and Pellegrini the best manager. And they also won a Wembley cup final.

There’s no disputing that Liverpool punched above their weight. But, if that was the criterion for making the award, then surely the honour should have gone to Tony Pulis?

I am delighted Tony took the Premier League manager of the year award after keeping Crystal Palace in the top flight.

That really was a miraculous piece of ­management that deserved to be ­recognised, given the predicament Palace were in when I left them in October. Finishing second with a massive club like Liverpool just doesn’t compare.

In my opinion, the top honour should of gone to Pellegrini.

No doubt people will claim that what City achieved was par for the course, given the money they have spent. But Liverpool have hardly been paupers in the transfer market down the years.

And we all saw, with Roberto Mancini last season, that having that wealth and weight of expectation brings unique problems.

Under Pellegrini, City have become a team united. He has brought peace and harmony to a squad that had been at war with itself last year.

City have played spectacular football — despite being without Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Yaya Toure for long periods. They hit 102 Premier League goals, scored another 54 in the knock-out ­competitions, and still had the second-best defence in the country.

Looking back at past winners of the Manager of the Year award, I notice that Arsene Wenger is the only foreigner to have won it in its 21-year history.

When you think what Jose Mourinho achieved in his first spell at Chelsea and what Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Di Matteo did after him at Stamford Bridge, that’s quite astonishing.

Perhaps it’s down to the fact that we like a plucky loser in this country.

Whatever the reason, Pellegrini has been the best manager in England this season - and he has THE trophy to prove it.

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