Who will be manager of the year?

The identity of the Premier League's manager of the year remains a closely guarded secret, although precedent suggests that, as in every season bar one since the award was instituted (1994), the gong will be winging its way to Sir Alex Ferguson as the winner of the league.

However this season there is a large groundswell of opinion that is pushing for the achievements of a manager with less silverware to their name to be hailed for the performance of their team in the season just finished.

While that may be tough on Sir Alex Ferguson, having won his 11th Premier League trophy and qualified Manchester United for the Champions League final for the second consecutive year, he's probably got enough of the awards (eight) not to care too much.

Fergie apart, the prime contenders for the accolade appear to be Roy Hodgson of Fulham and David Moyes of Everton, both British managers (Hodgson is English, Moyes from north of the border) who qualified their clubs for Europe by finishing seventh and fifth respectively.

Moyes has been a canny operator at Goodison Park since he arrived their with a reputation as one of the best young managers in the game from Preston North End.  In his time at Everton he has broken the Big Four's monopoly on the Champions League and this season took Everton to the FA Cup Final next Saturday, beating Man Utd and Liverpool along the way.

In his short spell at Fulham, Roy Hogson has turned a side that was playing uninspiring football under its previous boss Lawrie Sanchez - and heading for near-certain relegation last term - into an elegant and efficient short-passing side that played its way to seventh spot.

Fulham have beaten Arsenal and Manchester United at their Craven Cottage fortress on the banks of the Thames this season, and been the model for how to use skills and preparation to turn a team's fortunes around. The soft-spoken Hodgson has kept it simple while his side won 14 times on their way to a club-record position at the end of the season. All on the tightest of budgets and under the mercurial rule of chairman Mohammed Fayed.

Both men would be worthy winners of the FA's award - whether the Soho Square organisation would he happy to honour what could be perceived to be failure is another matter entirely.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
Patrick Barclay, the Times: "Fulham is a proper family club with an ambiance that has survived a rise from near the bottom of the Football League’s lowest division to seventh place in the Premier League in 13 years. The average crowd has increased from 4,000 to 24,000 without too much of a drop in quality and that, given the tendency of spoilt oafs to attach themselves to the fashionable game, is something of a modern miracle." ·