A tribute to Ray Wilkins
With the passing of Ray Wilkins in 2018, Football lost yet another legendary player. Football also lost a gentleman. I played with Ray Wilkins at Wycombe Wanderers FC. I was managed by Ray at Fulham FC. Ray coached me at Millwall FC. Ray Wilkins was a man the term legend was invented for. I am stunned and saddened by the news. Farewell to a wonderful human being.
Who were the best 3 players in 2018?
So, let’s get cracking and work out who were the best players in the EPL in 2017-18. There are only three names, so please don’t debate me on that. Yes, football generally tends to be subjective, but this can’t even be considered an argument: Kevin de Bruyne, Harry Kane, and Mo Salah are the only three players who can be considered in the running for English Premier League player of the 2017-18 season. I listed them in alphabetical order, before anyone accuses me of bias.
Mohammed Salah, Liverpool
We’ll work from latter to former to negate that criticism and begin our little discussion with the incredible form of Mohammed Salah. You couldn’t put this guy out with a thousand gallons of water: he’s incendiary.
With 28 goals in 30 appearances and a decidedly tasty nine assists to his name, Salah is almost single-handedly keeping Liverpool FC in the hunt for second place. His four goals with four shots against Watford last weekend was undeniably a feat of sheer class. Salah has opposition players and managers running for the hills.
Blimey, Javi Gracia the Watford manager decided to play without any full backs to spare the blushes of whoever grabbed the No.3 slot. Salah has had so many left backs spinning into the ground this season, that giving him the freedom of the Anfield pitch unopposed seemed like a good idea….even if just to prolong the career of one poor soul dressed in yellow.
Salah has scored a whopping 0.93 goals per game and is surely on target for at least 30 goals in his debut season. He’s breaking more records along the way than even The Rolling Stones have made.
Torres has been left in the rear-view: Salah has surpassed the 33 goals that Fernando notched in his debut LFC season in 2007/08. Give Salah another game, or two, and he will have switched gear and overtaken Robbie Fowler’s 36 goals (53 games) in a Liverpool shirt in the Premier League era. We can only sit back and admire the grace and panache of Salah and herald him an absolute bargain at a fee of just over £35m.
Harry Kane, Spurs
You have to feel for Harry Kane who will struggle to reach the heady heights of Mo Salah’s 28 goals, and counting, now that he has injured his glass, right ankle. Kane is, without doubt, absolutely world class and let’s hope that right ankle of his doesn’t stifle his ability to jettison his career into the stratosphere: three injuries on the same ankle before the age of 25 does have me slightly concerned, though.
24 goals in 29 games would normally have any self-respecting football fan salivating over their plasma screen, but Salah’s 0.93 goals per game has thoroughly eclipsed Kane’s 0.83 goals per game.
This doesn’t mean that Kane isn’t having a great season, or that he can’t be considered for EPL player of the season, it just means that he won’t be winning any personal awards at this juncture…a bit like his team, Tottenham Hotspur. A low blow, I know, but come on, Spurs fans, you’re totally used to it by now.
The last time you won anything of any note (don’t tell me you include the bloody League Cup?), the bloke with the fishing rod and the fella promoting crisps lifted the trophy. And that was before football was even invented on 20 February, 1992.
Kevin de Bruyne, Man City
Lastly, we need to move onto a player that the rest of the EPL is looking up to: Kevin de Bruyne. Without getting all mushy and doe-eyed, this guy has been a sight to behold this season. De Bruyne’s game has just gone from strength-to-strength. In 30 appearances he’s hit 7 goals and 14 assists, but that’s really just the icing on the cake.
Add to that production his range of passing: short to long, left or right, inside/outside of the foot and the odd laces pass, here or there. That doesn’t even begin to cover the full repertoire, but I think you catch my drift.
De Bruyne averages 74 of these delightful passes per game and has a very solid 45% shooting accuracy. Surprisingly, as he doesn’t really strike you as such a player, he also has a tackle success of 73%.
Enough of these bloody stats, because what I am really trying to say is that KDB is the all-round player: dictating games from start to finish, the ultimate professional on and off the pitch and with rarely a yellow card to his name.
To be considered anywhere near the level of Messi and Ronaldo he has to produce in the latter stages of the Champions League and on the world stage with Belgium. There also, of course, has to be a longevity that proves consistency isn’t an issue.
I have no doubt in my mind that KDB has the mental strength and aptitude to replicate this season’s quality over a number of years. His single-minded approach is one that all young players should strive for.
My Pick For EPL Player Of The Year 2017..Drum Roll, Please
For me, the title of EPL player of the season is a no contest. Yes, Harry Kane has been at his usual consistent best. Yes, Mo Salah has surprised us all (I assume) with his stunning debut season for Liverpool and his magnificent 28 goals haul so far. But, neither of them has dictated a game as consistently as Kevin De Bruyne.
Ultimately, he is the only player of the three that sits atop the EPL by 16 points with a massive goal difference, better than any other club by a massive 26 goals. KDB has had a majestic season so far and I’m sure he’ll be adding some team honours to the inevitable personal haul that he will rake in at the end of the season.
How Good were Manchester City in 2018?
Dissenting voices can still be heard in the ongoing discussion about the dominance of Manchester City this season. Just how good are they? Are they really the best team to ever grace the EPL? (Spoiler alert: nope, not yet). Can they win the Champions League?
City’s dominance in the EPL is a sight to behold, regardless of the naysayers bemoaning the amount of money they’ve shelled out. Let’s make no bones about it, most of us are just a tad jealous and wish our teams played the attractive, forward-thinking footy that City do.
Owner Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, or Sheikh Mansour to his buddies, may have a few dubious skeletons in his closet (and heaven forbid you fool around in that closet in Abu Dhabi, the country ruled by Mansour’s family) but despite the human rights issues surrounding the owner of Manchester City Football Club, how contemptible is it for Pep Guardiola to accept one of the greatest challenges in his managerial career?
Should the players themselves be worried about who is signing their paychecks? How about the fans passing through the turnstiles at the Etihad Stadium every other weekend? At what point should our love of the beautiful game be tempered by the behavior of the owners and regimes that have been swarming into football in the past decade? If the EPL gives them the go-ahead after doing their due diligence on applicants, should we just coalesce?
As with any conundrum in life, we must look inward before we point fingers. I’ll unhappily admit that I have sometimes taken pay checks from treacherous bastards. In another lifetime, I would probably cross the road if they were on fire, or at best relieve myself in the pursuit of dousing the flames, but sometimes needs must. For now I’m going to focus on the football being played on the green stuff on the pitch and try to forget where the green stuff off it is coming from.
Guardiola’s glory
Ultimately, there is no denying the fact that Guardiola has created a team far superior to any in the EPL. They are currently 16 points clear of city rivals (pun intended) United and a colossal 33 points ahead of perennial Champions League chasers Arsenal FC.
If this campaign were a boxing match it would have been stopped around Christmas time. Come April, you can be sure the PFA selected ‘Team of the year’ will be awash with sky blue. The fast, free-flowing football of this Man City team is a joy to watch. Yes, Liverpool FC may have a slightly more dynamic, counter-attacking trio at the helm, but they still have a propensity to leak goals like the Titanic just after the iceberg struck.
Spurs are awash with style and grace, but even they lag an astonishing 20 points behind City and have yet to dispel the theory that when the going gets tough they turn to jigsaws: doubly so in their case as they fall apart in both boxes. City’s experience reigns over Spurs’ sweet, naïve innocence.
As for the red half of Manchester, they are literally the polar opposite of their neighbors. Jose Mourinho’s willingness to suck the joy out of the game like the new Dyson cordless cleaner on a dust-addled floor is exactly why the word contrasting was invented. For all Mourinho’s bemoaning the lack of cash, Romelu Lukaku has come in at £75m and Paul Pogba at a whopping £90m, or so.
Kevin de Bruyne is City’s stand out of 2018
There are other players in the United side with large price tags on their head, but very few seem to be enjoying what is supposedly one of the best jobs in the world. Right now, poor old Pogba looks like he’d rather be anywhere else on the planet than pulling on the previously cherished red shirt of United. Yes, Manchester United are second in the league – but points, style and enjoyment wise the gulf is Grand Canyon-esque.
A glance at the Premier League goalscorers chart reveals that no less than four City players grace the top twenty. Aguero (21), Sterling (15), Jesus (8) and Sane (8). Gabriel Jesus hardly gets a sniff of the starting line-up yet he’s managed to bang in a hatful.
Kevin De Bruyne, City’s best player by a country mile, has racked up 11 goals and 19 assists in all competitions. De Bruyne has the vision of an owl and the passing ability of Glenn Hoddle in his pomp. If he gets any better, opposition managers are going to have to consider tying one leg behind his back in the tunnel before the game, or sticking a fantasy midfield trio of Hurlock, Souness and Bremner in the middle of the park to contribute a few scything challenges to the cause.
the PFA best 11 of 2018. Did they get it right?
With the season coming to a close, the PFA Players team of the year has already been announced.
The way it works is that every member of the PFA is balloted and those players who can read and write fill out their forms like dutiful souls, picking a 4-3-3 team to represent the best XI players in the EPL. Now, as I’ve alluded to, us footballers (past and present) aren’t the sharpest tacks in the drawer. I’ve seen the squiggles and crosses on ballot papers up and down the land that allegedly represented words and names on the page. Half the time the player sat next to you copies your form, like a slightly dim pupil in the maths test. Quite often players will vote for their mates, or players in the same agents stable as them.
But this year, goddammit, I think the players have cracked it. In fact I find it quite difficult to argue with any of their selections, but of course I will have a little nibble My only real gripe is that the team couldn’t possibly go out and play an actual game of football, as there are only three players in that line up with a defensive bone in their body. So if we had to put that team out on the field we would probably have to remove Christian Eriksen to make way for a defensive midfielder. And, this season, the stand out player in that role has been Fernandinho by a country mile.
Saying that, the PFA team is not really about formations but more about the XI best players. Let’s be honest, the forward thinking players tend to catch our eye and get all the plaudits, so on this topic, the players, for once, cannot be blamed. When push comes to shove there are possibly four selections I could argue with.
The PFA Team Of The Year
Goalkeeper David de Gea has once again been in scintillating form for Manchester United and he has been included in the PFA team four times in the previous five seasons. Yes, de Gea really is that dominant in the No.1 position. This season, for instance, he has the highest save percentage at 80% of the shots he faced.
This season, though, the boy from the blue half of Manchester has rightfully made a claim for the goalkeeper of the year. Granted, Ederson is not as accomplished an all round goalkeeper as de Gea (I am talking solely in the hands area here), but boy does his distribution make up for it. Whether it is off the floor with his feet, or attacks instigated with a swift, incisive throw, Ederson has really taken the EPL by storm. We can’t forget that it took de Gea well over a season to acclimatise to the EPL where as Ederson has slipped right into the Manchester City starting line-up and been sensational.
At right back Kyle Walker got the nod from his peers and while it is tough to debate that selection, Trent Alexander Arnold must get an honourable mention. Not only has he taken the EPL by storm, but he has fared equally well in the pressure cooker situation of the Champions League. This kid has a fantastic future ahead of him, and it is great to see that his appearances this season have already triggered a new contract: richly deserved that it is.
Vertonghen A Must
Jan Vertonghen is an absolute must at the heart of the defence, but I would make a solid case for Virgil van Dijk being included instead of Nicolas Otamendi.
Yes, Otamendi has flourished this season under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola while completing 2665 passes to date. That’s 300 more than any other player, but VVD has had such a positive, calming influence on the previously jittery Liverpool backline that his presence shouldn’t be ignored. Unfortunately his protracted move from Southampton has rightly had a negative effect on his chances at the ballot box.
Marcus Alonso has slotted into the left back berth, and here I have a little bit of a problem. Technically, Alonso plays left wing back for Chelsea, but I think it is much easier to consider him a left midfielder in their 3-4-3 formation. Alonso has chipped in with six goals this season and been a real positive for Chelsea, but a left back he ain’t.
With 20 appearances to date (possibly too few for consideration) Andrew Robertson had to have been in with a shout. The £8m signing from Hull City has been an absolute bargain and settled into the massive football club that Liverpool is with consummate ease. Poor old Alberto Moreno has hardly had a sniff after the first few games of the season.
The rest of the PFA 11 2018 is fine by me
David Silva has an 89% pass completion and 11 assists to date.
Christian Eriksen has made Spurs tick and stepped up to the plate with Dele Alli’s slight dip in form. 10 goals and nine assists speak volumes about the quality of the little, Danish playmaker this season.
Kevin De Bruyne has hands down been the best player in the EPL this season. Not only is his talent unmatched, but he has produced 11 goals and 15 assists and becomes the first player to deliver 15+ assists in consecutive seasons.
As we progress to the forward line we just have to tip our caps in respect. Sergio Aguero has 21 goals and counting. Harry Kane has 26 goals and at last glance was trying to claim he was the driving force behind the Berlin Wall falling.
Let’s save the best forward until last and just admire the majesty that has been Mo Salah in the 2017/18 EPL season: 30 EPL goals and nine assists. Add to that the 40 goals in all competitions (a feat last completed by Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2007/08 season) and LFC find themselves with a world-class talent. For once, the members of the PFA have come up with a starting XI to be proud of, so it really doesn’t matter how many “homework’s” were copied, or how many spelling mistakes occurred, I think that this is a team the EPL can be proud of.
2018: When Sunderland were in plight
Watching what happened to Sunderland in 2018 should be a warning to all those sides that think they are too good to go down.
That accusation can be leveled at sides such as West Ham Utd and Southampton who flirted with relegation, but couldn’t quite seal the deal, and Stoke and Swansea who had the trap door opened and a Huddersfield FC size 10 boot firmly implanted upon their behind on their way out of the EPL. Could one of those two teams “do a Sunderland?
”Sunderland, a massive, former, power house from the North East of England, who have had back-to-back relegations and find themselves mired in the rigours of League One when the season trots back around again in a few months. There have been prior warnings in the last couple of decades: Manchester City, our record-breaking champions of the 2017-18 season, was in third tier hell just a couple of decades ago. Add to City, European Cup winners Nottingham Forest and top tier winning Leeds United and you have quite a triumvirate of clubs who languished in League One not so long ago.
So, why did Sunderland think they would be any different? Bad ownership, bad management and a whole host of bad players led Sunderland Football Club down the garden path of relegation and into the quagmire of ties against the likes of Fleetwood Town and Accrington Stanley.
Coleman
Sunderland have parted company with numerous managers in the last few seasons and Chris Coleman was the most recent to go when he failed to stave off relegation. Ellis Short, the American owner, has engineered a massive downturn in fortunes for the football club since taking over in 2008 and the incoming consortium have a massive task on their hands. Loyal indigenous fans demand EPL football as a bare minimum and that is at least two seasons away. The best they can hope for is Premier League football in the 2020-21 season, way off on the footballing horizon.
Short’s neglect of Sunderland AFC mirrors the country’s neglect of the North-East. The economic plight of the North-East of England is a fitting metaphor for the downward spiral of SAFC and it’s going to take more than a person at the helm with a weak underbelly and a lack of a discernible plan to drag either out of the clutches of the repo man. Let’s dial it back a notch and at least make a football comparison with the club: Sunderland AFC is Jack Rodwell and, boy, have we heard a lot about Rodwell, but rarely in relation to the sport itself.
A Rod (well) For Their Own Back
For those that don’t know, Rodwell was a precocious talent when he made his debut in the top flight with Everton just over a decade ago – doesn’t time fly when clubs are continually airlifting cash into your bank account? Jack Rodwell had only just begun his professional career at Everton when his (and his agents) head got turned by the newly-monied Manchester City FC in August 2012.
City paid a whopping £12m to Everton for the young prodigy and the rest should have been history. Unfortunately, the only thing that was history up to this point was Rodwell’s career. Pretty much two years after their purchase and just a handful of EPL starts later and Rodwell had been flogged (in all senses of the word) on to Sunderland for £2m, plus exorbitant wages, less than they paid to Sunderland.
And here is where the problem begins for Sunderland AFC and ends for Rodwell and his bank manager. Rodwell signed a lucrative £70,000.00, five-year contract, so reports go. Sunderland, in their haste to get their man, forgot to insert any relegation clauses into Rodwell’s contract. Last season, Rodwell was still receiving that tidy sum while playing Championship football. More to the point, I guess, was Rodwell was receiving that sum to NOT play Championship football.
Stand Off
The afore-mentioned Coleman and Rodwell were at loggerheads for the final few months of the season: Rodwell wanted to leave because he wasn’t playing, so Sunderland agreed to rip up his contract, but no club in their right mind would take over Rodwell’s vastly inflated £70K a week wages. There was a stand-off. In this situation, there is only one winner, the player. (We have seen it previously with Winston Bogarde at Chelsea who sat on a reported four-year, £45K a week salary while rarely kicking a ball in anger).
There is nothing that Sunderland could do to crowbar THEIR player out of the door. Pay up his full contract, or the player is, 99% of the time, going to hunker down. You can make the player train with “the kids,” or treat him deplorably, but, ultimately, the player is the one laughing all the way to the bank.
Let’s be honest, who can blame him, or any other player in a similar situation. I have read and heard numerous fans and staff at Sunderland AFC bemoaning the player and his lack of respect for the club. Well, where is the respect of the club towards the contract that I’m pretty sure Rodwell didn’t force them to draw up.
Contract
They instigated the contract and he dutifully signed it. Jack Rodwell didn’t force Ellis Short to run the club on a shoestring in the last few seasons. Rodwell didn’t force Short to employ the plethora of dreadful managers, or hold a gun to his head while the club brought in numerous overpaid prima-donnas at a whim. And Rodwell certainly didn’t force Short to pull his finances in the latter stages of his reign and bring the club into the depths of the third tier of the English football pyramid.
Fans too moan and shout (rightfully so) at escalating ticket prices and merchandise, but want Rodwell to give up his money. If they won’t, why should he? All of their ire should be directed at the fool who placed the contract in front of Rodwell. Jack Rodwell should be applauded for standing his ground and not giving in to the alleged bullying and mistreatment from staff and the club as a whole. You reap what you sow, and it will be a good number of years before Sunderland AFC get a bumper crop again.
