Who will be Player of the Year?

By: Rob | March 25th, 2009

So we’ve arrived at that end of the year again, you can tell because the first odds for PFA Player of the year are out. The PFA award is voted by fellow pros, and is the one the players like to win, John Terry described it as “the ultimate accolade to be voted for by your fellow professionals whom you play against week-in and week-out”.

According to the bookmakers then, there are just three players in the running, the odds they are giving look like this

PFA Player Of The Year Betting:
11/8 N.Vidic
2/1 S.Gerrard
9/2 R.Giggs
18/1 F.Torres
20/1 X. Alonso

Which I think says something about the current season.

Last season there was only one contender as Ronaldo dominated proceedings in every way imaginable. But no-one has had that sort of impact this season. The bookies clearly think it’ll be one of those top two, but despite Gerrard’s recent great form, I think I’d find it hard to look past Vidic.

Last season, he looked great, though Ferdinand slightly better. Over this season as a whole they’ve looked an incredible partnership. When Man United went on that amazing run of games without letting a goal in, Van der Saar got alot of plaudits, but really his defence meant that incredibly he rarely had a shot to deal with. Half the time he needn’t be there.

These prizes rarely go to defenders, which may mean Gerrard ends up with the award – but over the whole season, he’s not been as good as Vidic, for me. It may well just come down to the title – with Liverpool back in the race, perhaps the players will want to back the winning horse.

Who would you give it to? I’m thinking about the season overall – Lampard started really well but dropped off a little in the middle, Gerrard has come into some great form of late, Vidic had that great run in the United defence, Zaki has fallen along way from his incredible start. Liverpool have always looked better when Torres is fit, Giggs has rolled back the years.

I don’t think anyone has set the league alight this year. So maybe that’s due to defenders – so its only right one gets the prizes.