The Premier League has named six nominees for the 2025–26 Manager of the Season award, and this season’s list highlights different definitions of managerial success. Past winners have not always taken home the title: George Burley, Alan Pardew, Harry Redknapp and Tony Pulis were recognised for achievements that went beyond silverware.

Pep Guardiola has overseen the start of a Manchester City rebuild this season. City are guaranteed to finish no lower than second and could even end the campaign with a seventh Premier League title. Yet there is a sense this season is constrained by the club’s recent standards, and that this City team might have been left behind by some of the competition they faced over the past decade. For most clubs, second place would be a major success. For Guardiola it is judged against far higher expectations.

Régis Le Bris has delivered a remarkable return to the top flight for Sunderland. In the club’s first season as a Premier League side in eight years they were never remotely in danger of relegation. Defensive organisation has been central to that progress, with Sunderland losing only one game more than Liverpool. They only need to match Newcastle United’s results over the next two games to finish above their fiercest rivals, and a top-half finish, which the club has not achieved since 2010–11, remains within reach.

Mikel Arteta is on the verge of ending Arsenal’s longest wait between league championships since the club clinched its first in 1931. If the Gunners hold on, it breaks a long period of underachievement. Aesthetically the season has not always been convincing and there is an element of sourness to how it has unfolded. If Arsenal win both remaining fixtures, it would register as the fourth-lowest points tally for a Premier League champion in the 22 years since the club’s previous title.

Brentford faced major departures in the summer after losing Thomas Frank and leading scorers Bryan Mbeumo and Yoana Wissa, who racked up 39 Premier League goals between them last season. Keith Andrews, in his first season as manager and a former assistant coach, has guided the Bees to their highest ever league placing and left European qualification a realistic possibility.

JJ Gabriel has been named the inaugural Under-18 Premier League Player of the Season after a breakthrough campaign at the age of 15. The award acknowledges performances that have already seen Gabriel training with Manchester United’s senior squad on multiple occasions this season.

Discussion about the immediate next steps has centred on the summer preseason tour, which will visit Finland, Norway, Sweden and Republic of Ireland. Additional safeguarding would be required because Gabriel will not turn 16 until October. Under-18s manager Darren Fletcher said the final call will rest with people higher up the club, but he made his position clear. “JJ’s more than capable [of going on preseason],” he said.

Fletcher added further context about managing young players around senior exposure. “We want him to go up there and thrive. We need to get him in the position to do that, and even if he doesn’t, that’s not the end of the world. We always need to be careful. They need to experience that, but it’s making sure it’s at the right time, and understanding why and what the needs are. Once you get thrown in, you’re judged very, very quickly, rightly or wrongly.”

Regulation means Gabriel cannot appear in Premier League fixtures during the same campaign in which he turned 15, which occurred in October. That restriction makes a competitive senior debut no earlier than next season. A first-team appearance on or before Oct. 24, 2026 would see Gabriel surpass the long-standing club record set by David Gaskell, who debuted aged 16 years and 19 days in 1956.

Other age-related milestones cited in context include Angel Gomes, who Premier League–debuted at 16 years and 263 days in 2017; Chido Obi, named in a Premier League starting XI last season at 17 years and 156 days; and Norman Whiteside, United’s youngest goalscorer at 17 years and eight days in 1982. All of those marks are described as attainable targets for Gabriel.

Beyond the statistics, Gabriel’s own remarks underline his outlook. “I’d say [the Academy] helped me mature a lot. They help me to be very humble and keep my feet on the ground,” he said. “I’ve got to say you’ve got to maintain working out on the training pitch every single day, giving it my all and working hard in the gym to stay fit and not get injured.” Fletcher’s praise for his attitude reinforces that the club sees both talent and temperament in the teenager.

Bruno Fernandes has been awarded the 2025–26 Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year after a season in which his creativity and consistency were prominent features of Manchester United’s revival. His performances have been singled out by the football writers who vote on the prize.

The FWA honour is decided by members of the Football Writers’ Association and is presented annually to “the professional player who by precept and example is considered by a ballot of members to be the footballer of the year.” The prize sits among the season’s principal individual awards and carries considerable esteem among journalists.

Winners of the FWA award often go on to collect the other major individual prizes in the same season. Players who have completed that sequence in recent years include Erling Haaland (2022–23), Phil Foden (2023–24) and Mohamed Salah (2024–25).

Fernandes is the first Manchester United player to win the FWA vote since Wayne Rooney in 2009–10. It is the 10th occasion that someone from Old Trafford has taken the award, stretching back to the 1940s. Cristiano Ronaldo remains the only two-time winner, a distinction that leaves nine different Manchester United players having now claimed the prize.

That United lineage includes Johnny Carey (1948–49), Bobby Charlton (1965–66), George Best (1967–68), Eric Cantona (1995–96), Roy Keane (1999–00), Teddy Sheringham (2000–01), Cristiano Ronaldo (2006–07 and 2007–08) and Wayne Rooney (2009–10), with Bruno Fernandes added for 2025–26. Liverpool continue to hold the overall record for the most FWA awards, with 16 winners from across the decades.

The recognition cements Fernandes’s status among the leading figures in English football for the 2025–26 campaign and places him alongside the recent roll-call of the country’s standout performers.