Footballer of the Year 2019-20

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I presume now things are up and running again they will eventually have a poll. They normally seem to do that with a few games to spare. Who gets it this year though? Liverpool haven't, actually, had any particular standout players in my opinion, despite their overall dominance - Henderson maybe? - and the league's top scorer is Jamie Vardy. Who do you think will/should get it?

[Jumbo McGinnis]

Van Dijk, by far.

[1974ddr]

I presume now things are up and running again they will eventually have a poll. They normally seem to do that with a few games to spare. Who gets it this year though? Liverpool haven't, actually, had any particular standout players in my opinion, despite their overall dominance - Henderson maybe? - and the league's top scorer is Jamie Vardy. Who do you think will/should get it?

True, he's had an excellent season in goal for the Blades, but FOTY?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

They have given it to Jordan Henderson. Just been announced.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

BREXIT

[EIM]

A reminder that in 1998/99, the season in which Manchester United won the treble, the Football Writers Association named David Ginola as their player of the year.

[Tony C]

They have given it to Jordan Henderson. Just been announced.

Not even the best Henderson in the PL this season.

[Sporting]

BREXIT

I don't get the reference.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

A reminder that in 1998/99, the season in which Manchester United won the treble, the Football Writers Association named David Ginola as their player of the year.

Ginola got the Players' player award that season, too. I know they normally hand out the awards before the trophies are decided, but what did Ginola actually do that year apart from just having a zexy franch agzent?

[Simon G]

He scored that goal against Barnsley in the FA Cup.

Other than that - I can't really recall.

[hobbes]

Pep is up in arms. Henderson gets the FWA award and apparently it's a conspiracy. Michael Ball jumps on the bandwagon until it's pointed out to him by Gary Lineker that lasts year's FWA winner was...
...Raheem Sterling.
Not to mention that the FWA award is traditionally for work on and off the pitch (hence Sterling winning for both his great season and his brilliant anti-racism efforts.)
And the PFA being voted for by all the players. If it's a conspiracy, it goes really deep.

Pep also seems to have forgotten that only one PFA award went to Liverpool last year anyway. The Young Male Player, Young Female Player and Lifetime Achievement award ALL went to ManCity players.

[Jumbo McGinnis]

Henderson’s been brilliant. I’d have given it to Van Dijk but he’d have been in the top three, for sure.

[Satchmo Distel]

I think Ginola is a bigger anomaly than Henderson, and I have no problem with it being given to a member of the most dominant team I have ever seen in the top flight, but Sterling may have been unlucky in that they didn't want to give it to the same person two years in a row.

Van Dijk is extremely unlucky because it was his signing the changed them from a nearly club to European and English champions.

[tee rex]

Scott Parker won it in 2011, something I'd definitely forgotten and wouldn't have got in a quiz after a dozen guesses.

Is there a generational difference in how this award is seen? It's the "proper" one to me, given its history, though I'd struggle to explain why football writers should be the founts of wisdom.

[That Night In Barcelona]

There were a number of Man Utd players in the running in 98/99 and it split the vote, from what I remember. I think they should have given it to little Marian Pahars personally.

[delicatemoth]

Is there a generational difference in how this award is seen? It's the "proper" one to me, given its history, though I'd struggle to explain why football writers should be the founts of wisdom.

I'd have thought that to a player the acclaim of your peers and colleagues would be an order of magnitude more meaningful than that of pundits, however insightful they may be.

[Sporting]

It's very possible that journalists see a wider selection of matches than do players.

[statto99]

Raheem Sterling was the first Man City player to win the FWPOTY since Tony Book in 1969 (joint with Dave Mackay).

No Man City player has ever won the PFA Player of the Year award.

Given early voting, usually before it's clear who will win what competitions or golden boots, etc, perhaps we should just update the award names to FW/PFA Zeitgeisty Bloke Of The Year (And Especially The Spring).

This time around Henderson appears to have benefited from playing for champions who were obvious well before Easter and he was also a leading figure in the Premier League players drive to raise funds for the NHS (which, clearly, he was not doing so he could win an ornament for the mantelpiece, I get that). Raheem Sterling probably attracted votes last year partly because of his own campaigning for a worthy cause alongside playing well on one the best two teams. Marcus Rashford can perhaps consider himself a bit unlucky this time around, as maybe could Vincent Kompany who captained City to the title these last couple of years (four times in total), has been an ambassador for SOS Children's Villages International since 2014 and two years ago founded TACKLE4MCR with Andy Burnham to address Manchester's rough sleeping and homelessness problems.

[EIM]

Vincent Kompany donated the proceeds of his testimonial to the homeless charity. The council gave his multimillion pound property development an exemption from the affordable housing rules. You decide how arsed Kompany is about homelessness and the housing crisis.

[statto99]

Interesting. Was unaware of this.

This "you have to consider what he's been doing OUTSIDE football, though", does seem to be a new thing, in any case. Don't remember it being an important consideration any longer ago than the last two years.

[EIM]

Burnham has promised a bed for every rough sleeper every night. This sounds commendable, but having chatted to several members of the homeless community they aren't impressed. One refuses to go as it's largely beds on the floor of a church hall outside the city centre. You have to get there then back to town the next day. Once there he said it's difficult for him not to get in fights, and he doesn't want to get in trouble.

Burnham's promise to rid the city of homelessness, to a cynic like me, appears to be being delivered by criminalising homeless behaviour in the city centre, and by moving support and provisions to the outskirts. Homelessness is only a problem when it's visible and upsetting consumers when they're out spending money.

None of which is anything to do with FWA awards, but it does my head in.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Van Dijk is extremely unlucky because it was his signing the changed them from a nearly club to European and English champions.

Him and Alisson.

[torres]

Mane would have been my shout but Henderson, Van Dijk or Rashford would all have been worthy.

I’m very surprised England’s very own man mountain Harry Maguire never got a mention.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I asked garcia for his thoughts on this and he said that for a lot of the season he was definitely among the eleven best liverpool players on the pitch, unless lovren was playing, in which case he was in the top ten, which is pretty much as I saw it as well.

This is obviously nonsense. Mane is clearly liverpool's best player with salah and van dijk and trent alexander arnold and allison a bit further behind and with fabinho and andy robertson a bit behind them. virtually anyone who can follow basic instructions could do what henderson does. Those players aren't as white English as henderson though. Henderson is a decent enough player, and seems to be a grand pleasant young man, who devotes a lot of the few thoughts he has every day to others. I'm not sure that calling around to new signings to make sure they're getting on ok, really should elevate you in this way though.

Ginola got the Players' player award that season, too. I know they normally hand out the awards before the trophies are decided, but what did Ginola actually do that year apart from just having a zexy franch agzent?

The PFA player of the year is voted on two thirds of the way through the season. given when its voted for, it shouldn't really be a surprise that a man utd player didn't win it, I'm surprised that an arsenal player didn't win it .Because Arsenal had won the double the season before, and a couple of their players had won the world cup, and they were on top of the league at the time of voting. It's the football writers player of the year that season that makes no sense.

[ale]

A reminder that in 1998/99, the season in which Manchester United won the treble, the Football Writers Association named David Ginola as their player of the year.

Wasnt even his best season in English football. That was 1995/6.