Soccer Portal

The PFA awards are a prestigious event that rewards the Premier Leagues finest in their field through individual skill or as a team. Great players to have picked up the PFA Player of the Year award include the likes of Ryan Giggs, Thierry Henry and Teddy Sheringham while the likes of David Beckham, Cesc Fabregas and Steven Gerrard have all picked up the PFA Young Player of the Year award in recent times.

Adding to the list this season are Tottenham Hotspur winger Gareth Bale and Arsenal centre midfielder Jack Wilshere who picked up the PFA Player of the Year and PFA Young Player of the Year gong respectively. Both have had fine seasons with their respective clubs with the awards showing their performances haven’t gone unnoticed by fellow professionals.

The farce with voting

However, the voting system is where the awards are somewhat corrupt. Players are forced to make their choice for the player of the season way back in Christmas. That’s right; four months before the winners are announced are five before the end of the season. It raises serious questions about the awards’ credibility and leaves fans and players alike scratching their heads in disbelief, asking ‘how did he win that?

Looking at the nominees for the Player of the Year award, it is easy to see why Tottenham duo Rafael Van der Vaart and eventual winner Bale were considered for the award before the New Year. The former, fresh from his move from Real Madrid, was making a rippling effect through North London following a series of top class performances with the Dutchman’s goals dragging Spurs up the table. The latter was causing havoc down the left-hand side and giving right-backs up and down the country sleepless nights about the prospect of facing a player that has lit up the world stage.

One more player, Arsenal’s Samir Nasri, was, like Van der Vaart and Bale for Spurs, performing admirably in Arsene Wenger’s starting XI banging in the goals for fun that saw Arsenal scuttle up the table and emerge as early season title contenders.

Yet, after Christmas, the form of the three began to dwindle. Van der Vaart began to develop an aura of Robbie Keane about him while Nasri and Bale have spent more time in the physio room than the pitch during the second half of the season. All three have seen their form drop considerably since the early season encounters which lead to questions of their inclusion for the award being raised.

Many fans and quarters of the media argued that Manchester United winger, and their most consistent performer this season, Nani should have been nominated for the award while Van der Vaart and Bale’s team-mate Luka Modric had a louder shout for the award than his Spurs team-mates, a sentiment echoed by Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish who admitted, in his column for the Daily Mail, that his vote would go to the Croatian schemer ahead of the seven nominees had he been included in the list.

What needs to change?

First and foremost, the voting system needs to be altered so the nominees can be determined by their performances for the entire season not just the first five months. It is fair to say Nemanja Vidic, Charlie Adam and Scott Parker have all warranted their spot on the list having played fantastically for their respective clubs before and after Christmas.

However, the likes of Bale, Van der Vaart and Nasri haven’t reached the dizzying heights of their early season form which lead to questions being raised about the awards. Voting should be taking place in the weeks, even days, leading up the ceremony so the league’s top players are in attendance, not those that shone in the first half of the season.

Secondly, the nominees for the Young Player of the Season need to be altered. Bale won the Player of the Year but was also nominated for the Young Player of the Year. Having won the former, should the Welshman have leapfrogged Wilshere into first for the latter? Being the league’s best player should also have won him the league’s best young player as well.

Credit to Wilshere, he deserved to accolade following a great season with Arsenal but players should only be allowed entry into one of the award brackets which would have eliminated Bale and Nasri from one category or the other.

They are two big changes that need to be made to the awards in order to silence the critics. This year’s ceremony may have honoured two of the league’s excellent up and coming talents but failed to recognise the best performer in both categories.