Wilshere Wins Young Player of the Year; Nasri, Sagna, Wilshere Make Team of the Year

By: Martin | April 18th, 2011

The PFA awards were announced yesterday, and three of our players took home honors:

The big winner for us was Jack Wilshere, who beat out Bale, Nasri, Joe Hart, Javier Hernandez and Nani for the award. He joins Cesc Fabregas, Nicolas Anelka, Paul Merson, and Tony Adams as Gunners to have won the award. It’s a nice honor for what has been a tremendous season for young Jack.

Despite not winning the Young Player of the Year award, Gareth Bale did win the Player of the Year honor, beating out Carlos Tévez, Nasri, Rafael van der Vaart, Scott Parker, Charlie Adam and Nemanja Vidic. I don’t for a second think that Bale was the best player, but he has had a tremendous campaign, and while some churlish Gooners feel compelled to criticize Bale at every opportunity, he is undoubtedly a great young player — if Spurs offered him to us straight up in a trade for any one player on our team, how many guys would we not give up for him? Cesc. Nasri. Jack. And after that, when you consider age, I’m not sure how many sure answers there are — Probably Theo. Possibly Song. van Persie? Vermaelen? I don’t know — but for all the thoughtless naysaying of Bale by Gooners, he can be a breathtakingly exciting player, and is a more valuable commodity than all but a handful of our players. Hats off to him for a good campaign, and while he probably didn’t deserve to win it, most of the guys who deserved to win it over him (Tevez, Nani) are total d-bags, so I can’t be too upset about it.

And we placed 3 players in the team of the year — Wilshere, Nasri, and Sagna. I’m really happy for Sagna, who makes his second appearance in the team of the year. I think he’s been the best right-back in the league for several years now, and he’s a guy who is often overlooked and doesn’t get the credit he deserves. It’s really nice to see him get that recognition. Nasri makes his first appearance in the team, and it’s a great reward for him as well after he had a superb first-half of the season. And I don’t think anyone expected Jack to make the team this season, at his age, especially when you look at the guys he beat out. As good as he’s been, I don’t think he’s been one of the two best center midfielders in the league, and I think he got swept up in the same phenomenon as Bale — everyone gets very excited about the new young guy, and overlooks some of the more experienced guys (guys like van der Vaart, Charlie Adam, Scott Parker, Yaya Toure, and others were excellent this season) in his favor.

But at the end of the day, these awards mean absolutely jack shit. It’s nice to see some players who have had good seasons get honors, but I could pretty much give a crap. I think they probably got a lot of these wrong, but I can’t work up the courage to get too indignant about anything. They are individual awards in a team game, based on the votes of players, most of whom are idiots who only get to see each other play twice a year, voted on in February when the season is barely halfway over. Nobody remembers who made the team of the year two seasons ago, but we remember just about every team trophy Arsenal has won during our lifetimes. All the individual accolades in the award do not change the fact that this season has been a failure by every metric that counts.

So congrats to all the winners, especially our guys, but as much as this gives us something fun to argue about on a Monday, I can’t get too worked up about any of this one way or the other. Spurs preview coming up tomorrow.

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Category: Arsenal News, Bacary Sagna, Jack Wilshere, Samir Nasri

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Bhanupratap

It looks like Wenger has finally lost the fans and it has been a long time coming. Its quite obvious he has lost the team (analysing their body language and attitude) and now he has lost us. I must say if we get beat badly wednesday (which I think we will) I personally think this will be the end of Arsene Wenger. Unfortunately all the good he has done for the club may have been destroyed regarding his DREADFUL management over the last few seasons. And i dont mean with the team we have etc. his tactics. Truely dreadful! Anyone that calls themselves a football manager wouldnt display the tactical suicide that he does. Shame on you Wenger. I have now lost all trust in you. I dont trust the man with this team anymore. My team. Our team. The golden years are long gone boys, now we need a shake up.
Perry S.

You speak as if this team has imploded. Underperformed? Yes, definitely yes. Wenger's fault? Partially. 2-3 players away from being a complete team? 110% yes. And the final question that will be answered this summer...will we get those 2-3 players? TBD

After the last question is answered, then you should be able to give your final verdict about AW and if his mentality has gotten the best of him. Hopefully he does the right thing.
Shirish K.

FYI, Bale is a Arsenal Fan ;) used to play with Walcott before in Southampton. hail gooners
RedCapedWonder

Optimistically, our season isn't over YET.
Patoux21

Sagna is so overrated. If he's considered the best right back in the PL the level at this position is probably very low. As for Wilshere it is well deserved even though he had run of bad games at the end of last year.
Perry S.

To say he's overrated isn't fair. I'll use an ice hockey phrase in he's one of the best "defensive defenseman" in the league, but if you are judging him offensively, then yes, he is severely lacking. My take on that position is that I really could care less about his offensive abilities as long as he's a solid stay-at-home defensive player. I would agree though that he needs to be told to stop trying those god forsaken crosses, they just are not working!
Patoux21

I agree that he's a good defender man to man but the problem with him is that he's too often running forward like a wingman and he's leaving the team in danger for counter attacks and when we lose the ball in the centre of the field.
If at least his crossing was decent I wouldn't be so critical.
What is the use of a right back who is not defending his position? He should be less naive in offensive situations and learn when to run forward or not.
Casimir

There was a stretch in November/December where it looked like he finally turned the corner with his crossing, but I agree, before and after that it has been abysmal. But that's something that's necessary to be a complete fullback. Already he's top notch in defensive aspects, but if his crossing was slightly better it would complement his game well. But that's a fantasy, in the reality of now he's a solid defensive fullback, and you can't complain about that.
Orion_saidwiseguy

Give me 3 games in which he put more than a foot wrong during the whole game, and I might take you more seriously.
Guest

If the goal before the season began was to stay in the top four, than this season was a resounding success.

On the other hand, we did fail to win the Carling Cup, but it is only a Carling Cup. Which is sad, but not a big deal.
Darren_V

Bale won player of the year? That's a joke, it really is.

As for Arsenal, it was unreal how we chucked away points (again), but also seemingly fitting. I turned the tv off thinking, 'well atleast I don't have to hope against hope for this season anymore'
Salmaan66

waw that is bid playr and that arsenal palayn games buaeyfull and parsea i lake arsnel all tam
DanKing9

All of the candidates for the award have only had a good first half of the season.

I went out up to visit a friend(a new Arsenal fan) for lunch and was checking the score on my phone. When I saw the final score and times all I could say is "Figures". While the title is still mathematically possible lets be honest with ourselves. We've had at least 4 must win games now and we've won one of them.
vHF

You forget the xenophobia factor of these awards: Bale & Wilshere are British (Jack is English, which is even "better").

As for the Bale swap, I would definitely keep van Persie too, but in any case would make sure they'll take Clichy as part of the deal.
Guest

I think Wilshire deserved Young Plyaer of the Year, taking every factor into account. I mean Nani is already 24...hardly 'young' is he? He shouldve been shortlisted for the Player of the Year not the Young one.
Martin

Yeah. I have zero doubts that van Persie is much more valuable than Bale when he is available. My thinking was just that van Persie is 27, so is as good as he is going to get, and incredibly injury-prone, so realistically you can't count on him for more than 30 appearances a year; whereas Bale is 6 years younger, and will likely get better, although he's had injury issues of his own.

I think it's pretty close, and you could make a compelling argument either way.