Barclays disclose Player and Manager of the Season Nominess
4. Ronald Koeman
Southampton were written off by their own fans when their main players like Lallana and Luke Shaw were sold to the big boys. In such a negative atmosphere, Ronald Koeman had the task of stabilizing the team, a machine whose main parts were sold, where he had to get similar parts to make it function properly again.
With certain under the radar signings such as Pelle and Tadic, who replaced vital members of the Southampton team, he was able to build a team which in the first half of the season was in a Champions league position. He made the team defensively rigid which lead them to conceding the least number of goals this season, while the attacking prowess of Tadic, Mane and Pelle did the job at the other end of the pitch.
Although Southampton are fighting for Europa League position as of this moment, nobody expected them to even be in the top 10 when Koeman walked into the stadium for the first time, it has to be said, it has been a managerial masterclass from the Dutchman given his financial support from the club hierarchy. He will definitely be a strong contender for the award.