English Premier League 2018/19 season review

Fulham players react to being relegated after Watford defeat
Fulham players react to being relegated after Watford defeat

Signing of the season: Joao Moutinho (Wolves)

Moutinho has provided some valuable experience in his debut season
Moutinho has provided some valuable experience in his debut season

This was by far the hardest decision out of the three categories and the award could have gone to several players. This season has seen many high-profile transfers and a lot of money was spent to acquire the likes of Mahrez (£61 million), Fred (£53.1 million), Alisson (£56.25 million) and Kepa (£72 million).

Alisson has had a great debut season for Liverpool, with 18 clean sheets to his name. However, it does help having Virgil Van Dijk in front of you.

Joao Moutinho, meanwhile, joined Wolves from Monaco for a modest fee of £5.04 million and has played 36 times this season, scoring once and providing 8 assists. It was a busy summer for the newly promoted club as they made a host of new signings, including Patricio, Traore and Jonny for a considerable amount of money.

Fulham had the same mentality as Wolves and spent big; however the difference is that the players acquired by Wolves had something to prove and were up for the challenge of the Premier League.

Moutinho was one of those new recruits and he slotted into the team like he had been playing there for several seasons. He offers a calm head and the team have looked to him for guidance when coming up against teams of a higher calibre.

Wolves have managed to score several key goals in the last few minutes of games this season and have turned to Moutinho to offer a cool head and support his teammates. He was even quoted as saying: "Until the referee whistles to the final of the match we never give up".

Moutinho offers so much to the team both defensively and going forward and records an average of 45 passes per match, as well as 36 interceptions and 221 recoveries. At 32 years old, Moutinho will hopefully have a couple more seasons with Wolves, but his debut campaign has been a masterclass and at £5 million he has been the transfer of the season.

There have been some great transfer deals this season in the Premier League and special mentions must go to: Guendouzi (Arsenal), Digne (Everton), Maddison and Pereira (both Leicester), Schar and Dubravka (both Newcastle), Brooks (Bournemouth) and Fabianski (West Ham).

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Edited by Arvind Sriram