Cesc & Adebayor to the fore
Add comment April 11th, 2008
Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Adebayor are worthy nominations for the PFA Player of the Year Award. It’s Adebayor’s first nomination, while Cesc is again up for the Young Player of the Year as well as the main award. The fact it’s voted for by their peers speaks volumes: on their day, both are unplayable.
Sadly, they have no chance of winning this award. Cristiano Ronaldo looks set to pick up ever gong going all over again. And frankly, he deserves to.
It’s quite significant that Aleksandr Hleb is nowhere near nomination. Significant because in the first few weeks of the season, journalists were falling over themselves to herald him as a potential Footballer of the Year. The fact he’s now entirely out of the running illustrates the dip in his form – a signficant factor in our deterioration.
Next year, Theo Walcott will hope to be a front-runner for the Young Player award. If he keeps on performing in the manner that so impressed Fabio Capello on Tuesday, that will be no problem. Arsene, however, is typically reticent to go overboard:
“Theo started last Saturday and nobody talked about him on Sunday, then he had a big impact on Tuesday. You have to accept that the player has to mature to have an impact at this level consistently. What he has done on Tuesday night deserves plenty of credit, it is absolutely fantastic and I am happy for him, but you want him to be a team player who makes a consistent contribution and keeps that special thing that he can produce.
Then he will not only be a good player for Arsenal Football Club, he will be a world-class player.”
He’s setting the standards very high, but that’s only right for a player who clearly possesses oodles of natural talent.
Another youngster, Gilles Sunu, has signed professional terms with the club. Although his first season has been interrupted by injury, the Frenchman is very highly thought of, and will look to make an impact in competitions like the Carling Cup from next season.
Finally, some exciting news that could relate to the clubs future. Marco Van Basten, who will take over at Ajax this Summer, could offer Dennis Bergkamp a coaching placement much like the one Martin Keown had at Arsenal last season. With Arsenal and Ajax looking into the possibility of a link-up like that between Chelsea and PSV, could Bergkamp be starting out on the long road back to North London?
I’m sure a management duo of Van Basten and Bergkamp would go some way towards alleviating the heartache of Arsene’s eventual departure…
ps. Don’t forget to listen to arseblogger and I babbling away on the arsecast.
