Boards
football spin-off thread: end of season review
The Grauniad asked their writers for their end-of-season thoughts yesterday. All the usual stuff. Tell us yours if you can be arsed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/may/14/guardian-writers-premier-league-season-review
BEST PLAYER: A tough one. Probably Silva for about 30 games of the season, but van Persie almost single-handedly got Arsenal into the top four. 30 goals for Aguero, though. Cabaye's been superb, ditto Dempsey. Think i'd have to go for either Kompany or Yaya Toure, though, for dragging City to the title, despite the fact that neither was even in my top three for our Player of the Year as recently as a month ago. Kompany, just.
BEST MANAGER: Mancini obviously deserved huge credit for guiding City to the title, but realistically, Pardew almost getting Newcastle into the Champions League probably pips him. Lambert and Rodgers, obviously, but even Hodgson, Jol, Moyes, and Martinez in the end. Pardew.
BEST GOAL: Depends if you're going based on technical skill of the strike, or magnitude of it. I'm gonna go for the former and go for Ben Arfa v Bolton.
BEST MATCH: Chelsea 3 Arsenal 5? United 4 Everton 4? United 8 Arsenal 2? Spurs 1 City 5? A few to choose from. Hard to look past the 1:6 derby really.
BEST SIGNING: Cabaye, Cisse, Vorm, Jelavic. Can't look past Gael Clichy, though. Derided by his own supporters before leaving Arsenal, now probably the best left-back in England. £6m.
WORST FLOP: Someone voted Samir Nasri! Has to be Downing, surely? 0 goals, 0 assists. Honourable mentions to Roger Johnson and Phil Jones, though one of those has obviously still got time on his side.
BIGGEST GRIPE: The continued presence of Hansen, Lawro, Shearer, Merson and the rest of the cronies on our tellies. At least we've got Neville and Souness, but you'd hope that at some point or other someone will consider the idea of sending some of the menbers of the BBC and Sky's respective Lads Clubs to the slaughterhouse.
BEST PUNDIT. Niall Quinn's completely unbiased co-commentary has been a breath of fresh air.
CHANGE FOR NEXT SEASON: Less televised football, ffs. It's often great and all, but it's every day. Some weekends we get 8, 10, even 12 games. It's too much, it really is.
BEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD?: No, not for me. Prefer the Bundesliga, think it's as entertaining and stronger overall. Would still have La Liga second, too, and Serie A's been just as exciting this season.