Two teams who have punched above their weight are Tottenham and Leicester, while one side defied the odds and somehow became champions of the Premier League, the other has guaranteed a place in the UEFA Champions League.
Both managers, Claudio Ranieri and Mauricio Pochettino, were incredible all season and have punched above their weight. Leicester were one of the favourites for the drop as they replaced Nigel Pearson, who guided them to safety last season with an incredible run.
Pochettino on his part was expected to battle for a top six place, but not one would have expected Spurs to qualify for the Champions League automatically through their league position. The Argentine manager also employed a great playing style which was pleasing to the eye as Spurs have the best defence in the land and the second best attack.
But if given a chance who should be the manager of the season? The incredible Italian Ranieri or the astute Argentine?
The teams
Looking back at what the construct of the teams were, Leicester basically had the same squad that Pearson left them with and only a few additions like Shinji Okazaki and Christian Fuchs, to name a few, joined the team.
The Foxes weren’t even expected to do anything much in the transfer window and Ranieri’s employment did raise a few eyebrows especially after the stellar job Pearson had done. Surprisingly, most of Ranieri’s signings did get the job done at the end and it paid dividends to sign them up.
Mauricio Pochettino also followed a similar idea and trimmed his squad down to focus on a core group of players, but his new signings, such as Son Heung-min and Clinton N’Jie haven’t really done enough for the side as the Argentine would have expected.
In terms of using the players at his disposal, it is Ranieri, who just shades ahead of Pochettino simply because not many expected him to get things done with his squad. However, the Tottenham manager deserves credit for constantly believing in the youth system at Spurs and giving chances to Dele Alli, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose.
The performances
While people would suggest that it was the Jamie Vardy, N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez show, but it was a great performance by everyone else. Danny Drinkwater, Wes Morgan, Kasper Schmeichel and Robert Huth have all been above par and ensured that Leicester stay at the top of the tree this season.
Their performances have shown no fear whenever they have faced the so called bigger teams. The only game where they seemed vulnerable was against Arsenal, which the Foxes lost 5-2. Tottenham on the other hand were also great, but they somehow ended up losing 20 points over the course of the season from winning positions.
The fact that certain sides got the better of Tottenham unexpectedly showed that Spurs are still a project in the making and with Pochettino at the helm and this experience of missing out on the title, the team should get better and also would help them next season when they go out to play in Europe.
Tottenham did do well in Europe, they were knocked out of the Europa League by a brilliant Borussia Dortmund and this should be a measure of things to expect from the side.
Truth be told, there really cannot be another manager of the season. The 64-year-old picked up his first winner’s medal as a manager and for the lovers of the game, let us hope he can do something similar next time around as well.
Mauricio Pochettino has age on his side and even though his side missed out on the title, these are happy days for Tottenham.