The winner of the football player of the year of the football writers of the year stems from teams who win the Premier League. This has been the case in seven of the last 10 seasons. Only once in that time Mo Salah won it and played for fourth place in 2018-Is it escaped the hands of the top two.
This season should change that. The most influential football player in the Premier League was Bruno Fernandes from Manchester United and he has all my voice.
He is not a popular football player outside of Old Trafford, but how many united players are then? United supporters continue to bear their Abu – everyone but united – name as an honorary sign and with reason.
Fernandes has certainly had his mistakes and I wrote about it fiercely, especially in the context of his role as United Captain. The 30-year-old still has occasional problems with his temperament and can certainly wave his hands around a little less when things go against him.
But Luis Suarez has previously won this prize. That's how Roy Keane has. It is not a price that is distributed to chores. It's about football.
United is 14th in the Premier League and have broken the kind of club records that nobody wants. But where would they be without their best player?
Rio Ferdinand thinks his old club would be in a relegation and that is a piece. They wouldn't. Nevertheless, the 16 goals of Fernandes and countless assists give Ferdinand's opinion that: “Without him there is no hope in terms of the attacking power of this united team.”
And this is one of the things of Fernandes. It's not just about goals. These are big goals and big moments. It is about contributions that form and change football games. It's about driving a team ahead. This is what players in the frame for individual prizes. At least it should.
Most will not agree with me. Voices go to Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Declan Rice and perhaps Alexander Isak. But it depends on how to frame the debate and the reasoning. If it was just a voice for the best player in the country, Kevin De Bruyne would probably have won it over the past five years.
I personally think it should be much wider than that. It should be about influence – about making an in -depth difference – and from that point of view the impact of Fernandes on his team this season is unmistakable and in my opinion, greater than that of another in the top division.
I always think there is one thing that distinguishes great players from very good. They are levels. It is always much easier to play well in a team that is on a good way. Much more difficult to keep your level high when teammates drop theirs.
That is something that Keane had. David Beckham also had it, especially for England. Maybe Steven Gerrard. Absolutely John Terry. Fernandes has this. From that point of view, he came to the fore as a leader in the true sentence.
The Portuguese international also succeeds for other tests. He has been consistent in performances – only one Premier League match missed – and goals. After a slow start – he did not register his first goal until the end of October – he never gone more than five games without scoring. Fernandes is not a center ahead and plays for a team that on average only one goal (1.15 to be precise) per match in the Premier League.
Then there is an environment. My two other contenders for the prize are Isak – the Newcastle Forward – and Salah, of which I suspect they will win. But both have benefited from playing for teams and clubs that have been set up to meet their needs.
Fernandes does not have this luxury. He has somehow succeeded in thriving in chaos. Playing in the current United team must be measured and there are apologies everywhere for players they want. United remains a club set up in many ways for failure, unstable at the top, with a new manager and insufficient play team. Fernandes has somehow succeeded in transcending all of that.
When the owner of minorities Sir Jim Ratcliffe said earlier this year that too many united players were too much and were not good enough, who was first asked about it? Fernandes.
“The club agrees the contract when you come here,” he said. Rather.
This is all part of the load of the captain, but that does not mean that it is not heavy. Fernandes recently revealed that he could have left last summer. He is well paid, but sometimes it must have the feeling that he has been desperately abandoned by others.
At United they told me this week of a player who has grown in his role and state. One source described him as the 'glue that holds the dressing room together', while another referred to him as 'the captain Roy Keane refuses to see'.
Keane has been constantly critical and it is undoubtedly due to the honor of Fernandes that there has been no public response.
“He is incredibly resilient,” a source unveiled close to the dressing room.
'Sometimes he will take a tough knock and you will see him limping after a match and think he will miss the next one. But he almost always plays.
'He is the social connector in the dressing room, the connection between different languages ​​and demographic groups. He gets the history of the club, his culture. He took care of that. He makes contact with supporters.
'When our training ground receptionist, Kath Phipps, died and the players gave the assignment and showed a flag in honor of her, it was Bruno. It's what he does. He is our leader in every way. '
None of this necessarily improves the references of Fernandes as a candidate for player of the year. After all, it is a football prize. But it does play the larger theme of a player who has embraced his responsibilities. The improvement in Fernandes that the captain has undoubtedly mirrored and perhaps even his improvement if a United No. 10 has driven.
I remember that I saw him very terribly, because United was humble in Liverpool two years ago with 7-0. Another former United Captain Gary Neville described him that day as a shame and it was impossible to disagree.
At that time I could not think of unsuitable captain of United. It goes without saying here, I have gradually changed my mind.