English PFA player of the Year nominations

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Just noticed Heironymous Bosch did notify this on the Scottish thread, but thought it deserved a thread of its own, so cutting and pasting from HB:

English nominations :

Player of the Year
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cesc Fabregas
Emmanuel Adebayor
David James
Fernando Torres
Steven Gerrard

Young Player of the Year
Cristiano Ronaldo
Micah Richards
Cesc Fabregas
Fernando Torres
Ashley Young
Gabriel Agbonlahor

Two things strike me immediately.

1. Given that Ronaldo and Torres are probably first-and-second favourites for the "main" award, should they be among the "young player" nominees? I know they're young enough, but wouldn't it be perverse if say Ronaldo won the main award and anyone else won the young player one?

2. David James?

[garcia]

English PFA player of the Year nominations

3. steven gerrard?

i think nemanja vidic and rio ferdinand can feel pretty hard done by.

[Guest]

English PFA player of the Year nominations

Torres is 24 years old, I'm slightly surprised he's been nominated for the young player award.

[Sam]

English PFA player of the Year nominations

I think the cut-off point for 'Young Player' should be 21. Ronaldo's 23 and moreover has been around for a few seasons now, so whilst he may still be young, he's not exactly a rookie in the sense of time spent in the league. Give the real youngsters a chance.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

English PFA player of the Year nominations

There's a very good case to be made that footballers are at their peak from 23-27 (as opposed to 27-31) So 24 years old is ridiculously old for the young player of the year award.

For example Fernando torres has played 244 league games and another 40 odd internationals. (well over 300 games in total) fabregas has played nearly 200 first team games for arsenal. Cristiano Ronaldo has played over 300 first team games. they're hardly young and up and coming players any more.

[Incandenza]

English PFA player of the Year nominations

American sports have Rookie of the Year awards. Those have their own problems--in baseball, for example, they don't count any time that a player spent in a foreign league, so Ichiro Suzuki, who had played for nine seasons in Japan before going to the Seattle Mariners, won the Rookie of the Year award his first season in MLB--and I see how there could be similar problems in football, but I think going to a concept like that would be better than some "young player" award where guys that have been playing professionally for years are up for it. At least make some stipulation of something like once a player has played for two seasons he can't be eligible for it.

[gt3]

English PFA player of the Year nominations

Nice to see Gabby Agbonlahor and Ashley Young nominated at least, although they've no chance of winning it. Agree with what's been said above about the cut-off age for this.

[ale]

English PFA player of the Year nominations

From memory the Young Player award was originally recognition of young players impressing in their debut season or first full season...Kevin Beattie Andy Gray Ian Rush Peter Barnes...

even Ashley Young played a full Premier season last year...

and was sure 23 years of age was the maximum to be considered..

[ale]

English PFA player of the Year nominations

and Adebayor is only 1 month older than Torres yet hasnt been considered despite a nomination for Player...

[erwin]

English PFA player of the Year nominations

.

Yes. If CR wins Player of the Year (as he surely must), he can't possibly fail to win Young Player, can he?

.

[Crusoe]

English PFA player of the Year nominations

I wonder if Torres is only being nominated as a young player so he can get an award even with Ronaldo picking up the senior player's award.