Wednesday, May 14, 2008

End-of-Season Awards

The end of the season is upon us, with only the UEFA Cup final today and the Champions League final next week still to go.

It was an exciting year in the Premiership, and it's time to recognize the players who stood out the most over the long, arduous 38-game schedule. To do that, I'll use some the same categories I used before the season when I predicted who'd win these superlatives when it was all said and done, and also add some new ones as well. The players highlighted in bold were my preseason picks.

So, here we go, my 2007-2008 Premiership awards:

Most Outstanding Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)

Most Valuable Player: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)

Most Outstanding Goalkeeper: David James (Portsmouth)

Most Outstanding Defender: Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United)

Most Outstanding Midfielder: Cristiano Ronaldo

Most Outstanding Striker: Fernando Torres (Liverpool)

Biggest Bust (summer signing): Florent Malouda (Chelsea)

Best Bargain Buy: Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn)

Most Outstanding Newcomer: Fernando Torres

Top Young Player (20 years old and younger, 38 or less Premiership games played at start of season): Theo Walcott (Arsenal)

Manager of the Year: Martin O'Neill (Aston Villa)

Team of the Year:
GK: David James
LB: Gaël Clichy (Arsenal)
CB: Jamie Carragher (Liverpool)
CB: Nemanja Vidic
RB: Bacary Sagna (Arsenal)
LMF: Ashley Young (Aston Villa)
CMF: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
CMF: Cesc Fàbregas (Arsenal)
RMF: Cristiano Ronaldo
ST: Fernando Torres
ST: Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal)