Ollie Watkins

[Dave]

Whoever wins the league will almost certainly be manager of the year. Emery has by far achieved more than them this season though. And i'd think that if I supported another club.

Occasionally you get curve-balls though. Pardew got it for finishing fifth with Newcastle, Pulis won it at Palace and George Burley won it at Ipswich.

[Toronto Villa]

The thing with Ollie is that propelled a side expected by many to finish in the top 8 at best into the CL. With Foden, as outstanding as he is, he is surrounded by some of the world’s top players. That helps when you are always dominating possession and playing a lot of football in the opponents third of the pitch. What Ollie has done is far more valuable to where we finished versus where Man City could finish. This isn’t me saying Foden doesn’t deserve it. It’s me saying Ollie deserved it more.

[Dogtanian]

Whoever wins the league will almost certainly be manager of the year. Emery has by far achieved more than them this season though. And i'd think that if I supported another club.

Yeah, because it’ll will be the ‘historic fourth’, so they’ll wank over that. And if they don’t, it will be the Mysteron’s bringing Arsenal back from the dead.

[SoccerHQ]

Based on pure stats Cole Palmer would have a case aswell.

He didn't actually sign for Chelsea until they'd played three league games. Then didn't start until 2nd October at Fulham.

He's effectively scored at a better rate than Haaland since, 22 league goals in 29 starts.

I know many have been penalties but for a right sided player in an incredibly dysfunctional set up until recently I think that's an extraordinary haul.

With Ollie he is at least getting the recognition of being shortlisted and also making team of the season. Bigger indignity will be over the summer when he's getting token minutes off the bench in the Euros.

[edgysatsuma89]

In terms of managers, I don't even think it's that close. Pep has done what is expected of him whereas Emery has clearly gone above and beyond. Who else has done that this season? Rob Edwards if they had stayed up, but they didn't. I think psychologically, if we had ended on early season form then it would probably have been a shoe-in. Which is daft.

[Beard82]

Whoever wins the league will almost certainly be manager of the year. Emery has by far achieved more than them this season though. And i'd think that if I supported another club.

Yeah, because it’ll will be the ‘historic fourth’, so they’ll wank over that. And if they don’t, it will be the Mysteron’s bringing Arsenal back from the dead.

Howe should have won it last season.  I think to be fair if Arsenal win the league that is a huge achievement and wouldn't begrudge it to Arteta.   At the end of the day, Man City play by different rules to everyone else, to me the fact that they have only won the champions league once means peps achievements are pretty average. 

[SoccerHQ]

Man. City haven't even been that great for portions of this season.

Stepped it up as usual in the last three months but this has been one of their least dominant title wins if you look at their actual performances.

Emery should be winning the MOTY award comfortably given he's taken us from 17th to 4th in 18 months and not spent huge amounts either.

[Sexual Ealing]

The thing with Ollie is that propelled a side expected by many to finish in the top 8 at best into the CL. With Foden, as outstanding as he is, he is surrounded by some of the world’s top players. That helps when you are always dominating possession and playing a lot of football in the opponents third of the pitch. What Ollie has done is far more valuable to where we finished versus where Man City could finish. This isn’t me saying Foden doesn’t deserve it. It’s me saying Ollie deserved it more.

That's true of all Messi's, Ronaldo's, Zidne's Ballon D'Ors. Who should have got them instead of those players?

[Rigadon]

The thing with Ollie is that propelled a side expected by many to finish in the top 8 at best into the CL. With Foden, as outstanding as he is, he is surrounded by some of the world’s top players. That helps when you are always dominating possession and playing a lot of football in the opponents third of the pitch. What Ollie has done is far more valuable to where we finished versus where Man City could finish. This isn’t me saying Foden doesn’t deserve it. It’s me saying Ollie deserved it more.

That's true of all Messi's, Ronaldo's, Zidne's Ballon D'Ors. Who should have got them instead of those players?

Foden isn't in that class though is he?

[Sexual Ealing]

Well, no, but he's still a great player in a great team.

[Jane]

It was only the "Writers" player of the season?

[SamTheMouse]

Whoever wins the league will almost certainly be manager of the year. Emery has by far achieved more than them this season though. And i'd think that if I supported another club.

Occasionally you get curve-balls though. Pardew got it for finishing fifth with Newcastle, Pulis won it at Palace and George Burley won it at Ipswich.

Hang on a minute. Tiny Penis won manager of the year? Really?

Bloody hell.

[Toronto Villa]

The thing with Ollie is that propelled a side expected by many to finish in the top 8 at best into the CL. With Foden, as outstanding as he is, he is surrounded by some of the world’s top players. That helps when you are always dominating possession and playing a lot of football in the opponents third of the pitch. What Ollie has done is far more valuable to where we finished versus where Man City could finish. This isn’t me saying Foden doesn’t deserve it. It’s me saying Ollie deserved it more.

That's true of all Messi's, Ronaldo's, Zidne's Ballon D'Ors. Who should have got them instead of those players?

Let’s no get carried away here. Statistically Ollie has better goals, assists in about the same number of PL games. Foden isn’t remotely any of those players you’ve referenced. Again, I’m not saying he shouldn’t be awarded it. I’m saying Ollie, in my opinion, had a better season compared to Foden and had greater influence on how we ended relative to expectations.

[PaulWinch again]

Ollie’s been great, but I’d have Foden slightly ahead of him. I’d have Rodri in front of all of the nominees.

[Sexual Ealing]

The thing with Ollie is that propelled a side expected by many to finish in the top 8 at best into the CL. With Foden, as outstanding as he is, he is surrounded by some of the world’s top players. That helps when you are always dominating possession and playing a lot of football in the opponents third of the pitch. What Ollie has done is far more valuable to where we finished versus where Man City could finish. This isn’t me saying Foden doesn’t deserve it. It’s me saying Ollie deserved it more.

That's true of all Messi's, Ronaldo's, Zidne's Ballon D'Ors. Who should have got them instead of those players?

Let’s no get carried away here. Statistically Ollie has better goals, assists in about the same number of PL games. Foden isn’t remotely any of those players you’ve referenced. Again, I’m not saying he shouldn’t be awarded it. I’m saying Ollie, in my opinion, had a better season compared to Foden and had greater influence on how we ended relative to expectations.

I'm not suggesting he's as good as them, but the situation you described (that I bolded), that he's in the best team so he's always attacking, getting to show what he can do, applies to them too. Were there not players in those eras who had big impacts on lesser teams? I'd imagine there were, but nobody pays attention to those players because they're not doing spectacular things in enormous games with global attention being paid.

What would your reaction be if Ross Barkley had won it? He's had a significant impact on a terrible team - does he deserve it more?