King Kev is already star man of season
DE BRUYNE HAS NO RIVALS FOR CITY’S TOP PLAYER PRIZE
THE football season is up in the air.
City may have claimed the Community Shield and the Carabao Cup but the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League all remain undecided.
There will be discussions held between the relevant bodies this week to try and sort contingency plans, but the reality is nobody knows when football will be played again and if the season will be finished.
Players can train to keep themselves fit, staff can make plans for opposition, but for now there are no concrete plans that guarantee a completion of the campaign.
Whatever decisions are made regarding trophies, Pep Guardiola’s side do not need to play any more minutes this season to know who deserves their end-of-season award for the best player.
For the third year in five seasons since he joined the club, it must be Kevin de Bruyne.
After struggling to keep his form in an injury-ravaged season last year, the 28-year-old returned from a summer break, that included two holidays, fully refreshed.
It was obvious from the first game of the pre-season tour, even as the team struggled with an enormous time difference and terrible conditions, that De Bruyne had found that level of effortless brilliance.
Any mention of the Belgian seemed to bring a smile to the face of the manager, who said he saw once more the player that had ripped up the Premier League in the 2017/18 campaign.
It still rankles with Guardiola that the player was not deemed the best in the league that year – he brought it up again after defeat to United at Old Trafford – but De Bruyne was an easy winner in the club awards and the same is true for this season.
With 16 assists and eight goals from 26 appearances in the league, even if Thierry Henry’s record (20 assists) never gets passed it has still been a phenomenal year where the seemingly impossible has been made to look remarkably routine.
As Sheffield United defender John Egan put it recently: “He hit a pass for Sergio Aguero in the only place he could have put it and I’m there thinking: ‘that’s world class.’ That’s the only time I’ve felt helpless on a football pitch this season. Genius.”
There are no other obvious candidates besides De Bruyne.
Raheem Sterling threatened to make it his year but his goals have tailed off, Aguero and Fernandinho have been among the better performers without coming close to stealing the show. There may yet be somebody who makes a late surge with an important contribution in a big knockout game – if they get played. However, with all the uncertainty surrounding the season the prize for City’s best player has already been wrapped up.
It was obvious from the first game of the pre-season tour that De Bruyne had found that level of brilliance