STAN COLLYMORE Sulks and selfies v substance and style
DORKS ON DORTMUND
Follow us on Twitter: @peoplesport THE fact Alexis Sanchez made the shortlist for the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award is further proof of how archaic the voting system is.
Despite the technology available to us these days, the ballot papers still go out at the end of February or early March and are back in by early April, meaning the most important time of the season is missed.
Gordon Taylor, the PFA’s chief executive, will say they cannot wait until after the last game of the season because all the lads go off on holiday, or link up with their countries, and I understand that.
But if the players’ union gave each member a unique log-in or password to go on the website – or used some sort of app that only players can download – they could vote that way.
And everyone of them could be cajoled by their skipper, PFA rep or manager to push a button before leaving the dressing room after the final game of the season. It is such a prestigious award, to be voted for by your peers means the world, so it should take into consideration every game of the season.
The system is in need of an upgrade, and, inherently, there’s a flaw because it means that March, April and May, the three months of the season where you have to come good as a top-quality player, are not really part of the process.
Sanchez’s case proves that. He has had a stinker in recent weeks and his inclusion on the shortlist is a ridiculous reflection of the PFA not embracing modernity.
Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Diego Costa, David Luiz…
I’ve just rattled five names off the top of my head of players who are more deserving of a place on that list than the Chilean.
And when you think of those who did make it – Harry Kane, Eden Hazard, N’Golo Kante, Romelu Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimovic – you’ve 10 players already who are more deserving.
Sanchez has gone missing at key times, yet those boys haven’t.
His season will perhaps best be remembered for the contract stand- off, sulks and selfies on Hampstead Heath with his dogs than the goals he has scored.
I even saw claims last week that Arsenal are preparing to make him the highest-paid player in their history with a £300,000-a-week offer – and how desperate must they be to do that?
If I were Arsene Wenger and someone was to come in this summer with a £50million bid for Sanchez, I’d drive him wherever he needs to be driven. The one consolation of his inclusion is that he has no chance of winning it because it will go to one of the Chelsea duo on the shortlist.
And one, in particular, is far more deserving than the other.
Kante has had an incredible 24 months of football and, while some will say, ‘Stan, the time-frame taken into account should start in August and end in May’, it is still the Players’ Player of the Year award, so it doesn’t hurt to include last season.
Hazard was a disgrace back then, as Chelsea chucked it in under Jose Mourinho – he went from great the season before last when he won the award to, frankly, s**t and then good again.
Whereas Kante has not dropped his standards in helping Leicester to the title last season and in helping Chelsea become champions-elect this time out.
And if the Frenchman is not Player of the Year, then I dismiss totally my fellow professionals’ ability to be able to look at substance over style. THERE’S no way Borussia Dortmund should have been forced to play Monaco just 24 hours after their team bus was the target of a bomb attack.
They should have been given a week to decompress, with the first leg put back to the second-leg date and the second leg another week after that.
I know the rules state Champions League and Europa League games cannot be played on the same night as Premier League games, but, if that has to be the case when these horrible situations arise, then there has to be some leeway.
It’s not ideal for the fans, the clubs or the leagues, but everyone understands and there is a little wriggle room in the fixture calendar.
I do feel for the players when they’re in those kinds of situations. It will have taken a good couple of days for them to realise what exactly had happened.
TheTh i inclusion of Sanchez on the shortlist is a ridiculous reflection of the PFA not embracing modernity