There are already some voices of dissension crying out over the PFA award nominees announced today, and well there should be. Vidic I can accept, Gerrard I can accept, and Rio I can perhaps accept (though I can think of a couple of centre-backs who probably deserve it more). But Giggs? Ronaldo? Van der Saar? In the words of Colonel John Patrick Mason, this is "an act of lunacy," and the footballers who voted for these players are idiots.
Personally, I think Man Utd kept 14 [?] clean sheets in a row in spite of Van der Saar rather than because of him, and I don't think it was a small matter that his run ended when he made a terrible mistake against Newcastle. He has made quite a few similar mistakes in the recent past and is likely to continue to do so until Ferguson buys someone else. He's a decent goalkeeper who was an outstanding goalkeeper, but one of the best six players this season? No way.
Ronaldo we know about. His inclusion in this list is as strange as it is dumb, especially when you consider that he was voted in by the players he has kicked and whinged about all season. Last season fellow professionals were left with no choice but to vote for the prat. His stunning goals tally left them no excuse. This season they had an out, and yet they have refused to use it. If Barrabas is the people's choice then so be it, but if I were Frank Lampard I would feel extremely betrayed right now. This season Lamps has played better than I've ever seen him play. I still question him when it comes to the big matches, but anyone who does this during a season gets my respect. How he was overlooked is an absolute mystery.
And finally, we come to Giggs. The sentimental vote. The fact that he hasn't won this award before is quite shocking, but let's not cheapen the thing by giving it to him now. Sean Ingle from the Guardian likened it to Scorsese winning an oscar for The Deprated, and I'd have to agree. Giggs has exceeded everyone's expectations this season, but only because he hasn't been complete rubbish. That said, just because he has shown that he is capable of starting a third of United's Premier League matches this season without keeling over we shouldn't thrown him a top award. Perhaps if there was an "Old Player of the Year" to go with the "Young Player of the Year" award then Giggsy could walk away victorious, but there isn't. There are only two awards: Giggs is about 14 years too late for one, and not good enough for the other.
The voting was done in February/March, so my guess is that players saw Giggs score that decent goal against West Ham, heard Ferguson and others laud him for being such a great professional, decided to ignore the large chunks of the season which saw Giggs sit on the bench, and just went ahead and voted for him. If people want to turn this thing into a lifetime achievent award then so be it, but if Tugay isn't shortlisted next year then I'm going to make a complaint.
As for some players who I would pick instead of the three I've moaned about, here are a dozen or so names:
Van Persie, Schwartzer, Hangeland, Gallas, Barry, Lampard, Reina, Alonso, Mascherano, Carrick, Fletcher, Ireland, Rooney.
Personally, I think Man Utd kept 14 [?] clean sheets in a row in spite of Van der Saar rather than because of him, and I don't think it was a small matter that his run ended when he made a terrible mistake against Newcastle. He has made quite a few similar mistakes in the recent past and is likely to continue to do so until Ferguson buys someone else. He's a decent goalkeeper who was an outstanding goalkeeper, but one of the best six players this season? No way.
Ronaldo we know about. His inclusion in this list is as strange as it is dumb, especially when you consider that he was voted in by the players he has kicked and whinged about all season. Last season fellow professionals were left with no choice but to vote for the prat. His stunning goals tally left them no excuse. This season they had an out, and yet they have refused to use it. If Barrabas is the people's choice then so be it, but if I were Frank Lampard I would feel extremely betrayed right now. This season Lamps has played better than I've ever seen him play. I still question him when it comes to the big matches, but anyone who does this during a season gets my respect. How he was overlooked is an absolute mystery.
And finally, we come to Giggs. The sentimental vote. The fact that he hasn't won this award before is quite shocking, but let's not cheapen the thing by giving it to him now. Sean Ingle from the Guardian likened it to Scorsese winning an oscar for The Deprated, and I'd have to agree. Giggs has exceeded everyone's expectations this season, but only because he hasn't been complete rubbish. That said, just because he has shown that he is capable of starting a third of United's Premier League matches this season without keeling over we shouldn't thrown him a top award. Perhaps if there was an "Old Player of the Year" to go with the "Young Player of the Year" award then Giggsy could walk away victorious, but there isn't. There are only two awards: Giggs is about 14 years too late for one, and not good enough for the other.
The voting was done in February/March, so my guess is that players saw Giggs score that decent goal against West Ham, heard Ferguson and others laud him for being such a great professional, decided to ignore the large chunks of the season which saw Giggs sit on the bench, and just went ahead and voted for him. If people want to turn this thing into a lifetime achievent award then so be it, but if Tugay isn't shortlisted next year then I'm going to make a complaint.
As for some players who I would pick instead of the three I've moaned about, here are a dozen or so names:
Van Persie, Schwartzer, Hangeland, Gallas, Barry, Lampard, Reina, Alonso, Mascherano, Carrick, Fletcher, Ireland, Rooney.
3 comments:
Couldn't agree with you more Decie. It's an indictment of the whole voting system. However the fact that your list contains no Everton players Decie... tut, tut. I'll give you credit that it probably wasn't an exhausted list. One say on the Giggs thing, he shouldn't be in the six. It really annoys me when sentimentality rules over logic but I think a similar thing happened with Zidane in the last WC and there weren't perhaps as many complaints as there should have been when Cannavaro was mugged of the award.
Yeah Cahill and Jagielka would be in there for sure, and Arteta also if he didn't get injured.
The Departed deserved to win all the awards....
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