The Alternative Football Awards

With the recent release of the shortlist of both the PFA player and young player of the season and the Premier League 20 seasons awards, I have decided to give my own awards out. Unlike the conventional awards such as 'player of the season' and 'goal of the season', my awards will be a little bit different.

'Worst' Player of the Season

The Candidates:-

At least he has the looks

Andrey Arshavin - The enigma that is Andrei Arshavin, a player who can score 4 against Liverpool at Anfield one week and get substituted for Chu-Young Park the next. In his 26 appearances for the Gunners this season he has the amazing total of 2 goals the same amount as his Arsenal team mate Laurent Koscielny. As a result Arsene Wenger sent him back to Russia on loan with Zenit St Petersburg where so far he has one goal in five appearances.

Hindsights a wonderful thing

Fernando Torres - £50 million - Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney - some of the players you might think are worth this amount of money, to be honest Messi and Ronaldo are probably worth three times that amount. Three years ago you would most likely have added Fernando Torres to that list, two years ago he was worth £30 million, a year ago £20-25 million and now less than £20 million. Yet just over a year ago Chelsea payed £50 million for the Spanish international, since then has scored the grand total of 8 goals in 41 appearances for Chelsea, missed an open goal against Manchester United and been dropped from the Spain squad.

Get in! 7th place

Stewart Downing - To be quite honest I could of chosen any of Liverpool's recent signings especially Jordan Henderson and Andy Carroll, but I was so astounded by his stats this season I just couldn't leave him out. In 31 Premier League appearances this season Downing has the accumulated the grand total of 2 goals and 3 assists - appalling. It is even more appalling when you compare Downing with his former Aston Villa team mate Ashley Young, who in fewer games (22 PL appearances) has 6 goals and 12 assists.

Joey Barton - Maybe if he wasn't such an annoying, outspoken (Insert expletive here) prima donna I may have a bit of sympathy for the QPR captain, but the reality is Joey Barton has been one of this season's biggest under performers. his inconsistent form has seen a QPR team with decent Premier League players such as Bobby Zamora and Djibril Cisse become embroiled in a relegation battle. In all fairness to Barton since he has taken a break from Twitter his form and that of QPR has improved.

You only have yourself to blame Wolves

Roger Johnson - Throughout Birmingham City's recent two year stint in the in the Premier League their two stand out performers were the centre back partnership of Scott Dann and Roger Johnson, so when the brummies were relegated both Dann and Johnson were hot property. Blackburn snapped up Dann, who has had a decent season at Ewood park and Wolves captured Johnson, who has had an indifferent season to say the least. Wolves as a collective have been very poor this season, but it is defensively were they have been abysmal (This is what happens when you loan out George Elokobi) conceding 73 goals this season with Johnson being made to look very ordinary.

The Winner

Roger Johnson  

Yessssssssssss I won

They think its all over, they may have to think again

3.45 - We are staying up

I like many at half time at Ashton Gate on Monday allowed myself to believe that City would hold onto to the lead they had gained through Jon Stead's own goal through the second half and come away from Bristol with the valuable three points that were so desperately needed in the battle to avoid the drop, however 45 minutes and an inept second half performance later this belief of mine had been shot down in flames or maybe that should be rain. Worse still was what I can only describe as one of my most unpleasant moments as a Coventry fan, what seemed the longest walk out of a ground ever in the p*ssing rain with a few thousand Bristolians pointing out the fact that we may be going down this season (In all fairness we didn't need a load of cider drinking farmers to tell us that). Maybe it was Karma on my part as I had boldly predicted in my previous blog that we would stay up and Bristol would go down. At this point you may think I would accept the fact that relegation is an inevitability, ye of little faith, there is in my opinion many, yes many reasons with the City can stay up. I've been able to get down the many reasons to five main reasons why the Sky Blues can still stay up.

4.45 - Oh Dear

Reason 1 - Fixtures - With Millwall's win over Pompey last night it is now more than likely that the final relegation spot is between us and Bristol City, with this the final four fixtures of the two teams come into play. Bristol City's next two games are against promotion chasing Birmingham away and West Ham at home, it doesn't take a genius to work out the point I am making, that these two sides are just about guaranteed to be in the play-offs and should therefore have the quality to beat Bristol. Obviously this is the championship where anything can happen, but when you look closer at these fixtures you see that Birmingham have only lost one game at home all season and that West Ham have the best away record in the division. Add to this that we have two very winnable home games to come against Millwall and Doncaster, results in the fact that we should at least be able to take the relegation battle to the last day of the season.

We can only dream

Reason 2 - Oliver Norwood and Alex Nimley - Originally I was more impressed with Nimely than Norwood but the Northern Ireland international has impressed during the last ten or so games with his passing ability being particularly good. The fact that on Monday the fans had to chant Nimely's name to get him on the pitch shows his worth to the team (Lets face it he's the only player we have with real pace). Both players have been vital to getting City into a position where we can still fight for survival and I believe that they will both be key in the final games of the season.

Alex Nimely

Reason 3 - Fortress Ricoh - No one could ever say that the Ricoh has been an intimidating place for an away team to come to, but currently it appears that it is as we are unbeaten in six games at home. We need to use this to our advantage and I plead with anybody reading this blog (and that is quite a lot of people) to buy tickets for the final two games at the Ricoh and try and revive a Highfield Road-esque atmosphere.

Reason 4 - Brett Pitman - Bristol City's striker was red carded for a shocking tackle on Jordan Clarke on Monday and as a result he will miss the Robins next three games. I would now like to point out the fact that he is their top scorer this season and without him they do have trouble scoring. 

Reason 5 - The Return of David Bell - Yes I'm serious David Bell could be the answer to all Cov fan's prayers. Ever since Carl Baker pulled up with a Hamstring injury against Birmingham, the right side of the diamond position has been city's major weak link. Conor Thomas, Gael Bigirimana and most recently Gary Deegan have all been played their and all struggled. This is where Belly comes in, no-one really knows his best position he's not an out and out winger and not quite a central midfielder but maybe something in between. Whereas Thomas, Bigi and Deegan are naturally definsively minded midfielders, Bell has flair and skill to his game and in my opinion would be naturally suited to that position. 

David Bell

Well there they are, five fool proof reasons as to why Coventry City will stay up. Failing these five reasons we can only hope that Clive Platt actually starts to play like his name sake Michel Platini.

Clive Platt

Michel Platini

       

The Championship - Every team with something to play for (except Barnsley and now Peterborough)

Part 2 - Relegation

Team - Nottingham Forest

Garath McCleary

My View - After the debacle that was Steve McClaren's reign as Forest manager, Steve Cotterill appeared to have steadied the ship with four wins out of his first six games. However a poor run of results coinciding with the failure to score at home in seven consecutive games, led to Forest being thrust into a relegation battle. However recently they have played some decent football and got some excellent results, none more than the 7-3 hammering of Leeds at Elland Road. As it stands they are six points outside the relegation zone and with the quality of squad they have I expect them to stay up.   

Key Man - Garath McCleary - The skilful wide-man has been one of the reasons for Forest's return to form, his explosive performance against Leeds in which he bagged four goals highlighted his quality.  

My Prediction - 18th

Andy Keogh

Team - Millwall
My View - It's been a case of second-season syndrome for Millwall this year. Last season a newly promoted Millwall team finished the season in 9th and flirted with the play-offs throughout the season. However this season they've consistently been a bottom half team. Personally I don't expect them to go down but their recent form hasn't been brilliant with only eleven points from their last ten games.   
Key Men - Darius Henderson and Andy Keogh - One of the main reasons for Millwall's underwhelming season has been the loss of Steve Morison to Norwich. If Henderson and Keogh can continue the decent scoring record they've had this season Millwall should be ok  
My Prediction - 21st

Team - Coventry City

Inspirational

My View - The super Sky Blues have struggled for the majority of the season, mainly for reasons off the field. Many youth players have been thrown into first team action as a result, with the likes of Conor Thomas, Gael Bigirimana and Cyrus Christie showing their worth. However they are unbeaten in six games and are now out of the relegation zone for the first time since October. At this stage of the season momentum is key and with five of their last six games against teams in the bottom half I am confident that City will maintain their championship status for another season. 
Key Man - Richard Keogh - A rock at the back all season long and has formed a solid partnership at centre half with Martin Crainie.
My Prediction -19th

Calamity James strikes again

Team - Bristol City
My View - Similarly to Forest the robins sacked their manager Keith Millen early in the season and replaced him with Scot Derek McInnes. This change had the same effect as it did at Forest, after an initial run of wins they have fallen down the table and have only one win in their last ten games. The loss of top scorer Nicky Maynard to West Ham in January only added to their woes and with David 'calamity' James giving goals away relegation is a distinct possibility. Failure to get anything out of key games with Coventry and Forest will in my opinion see relegation become a reality   
Key Man - Brett Pitman - If the former Bournemouth hotshot can find his shooting boots Bristol may have a chance of survival 
My Prediction - 22nd

Oh dear

Team - Portsmouth 

My View - If Portsmouth go down it is a simple case of a club not learning its lesson. Having been in administration once before you would have thought that they would have tried to stabilise the club, this wasn't the case and in February they entered administration again (If your going to pay tinpot players like Tal Ben-Haim 60k a week what do you expect). With administration came a ten point deduction, the loss of first team players such as Erik Huseklepp and Liam Lawrence and in my opinion relegation  
Key Man - The Administrator - If he does his job properly Portsmouth may have a future as a football club
My Prediction - 23rd 

'Yes lads were going down'

Team - Doncaster Rovers
My View - What can be said about Doncaster that hasn't already been said, frankly there just not good enough. It doesn't matter how many 'big' players you sign for huge money on short contracts, the fact of the matter is that the likes of Diouf, Piquionne, Ilunga and Beye are all over thirty and couldn't careless if Donny go down as long as they get their pay packet   

Key Man - Dean Saunders - A good manager who will do well with Donny as he did with Wrexham 
My Prediction - 24th

The best of the rest - Peterborough and Barnsley

My View - With six games to go they are ten and nine points outside the relegation zone and as a result I can't see them going down. However I can see Barnsley not picking up a single point for the rest of the season. The only reason Barnsley will be safe is down to Ricardo Vaz Te's goals in the first half of the season

The Table