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2) Jussi Jaaskelainen (West Ham United)
Jussi Jaaskelainen did his reputation as one of the most talented of shot blockers in the country no harm with his performances this season for West Ham. Sam Allardyce took a chance on the Finland international after he was released by Bolton the previous season as the Trotters suffered the ignominy of relegation, while Jaaskelainen himself had to relinquish the ‘first choice’ tag to Ádám Bogdán.
If you thought that Jaaskelainen was past his due date, the flying Finn made all the doubters eat their words. Allardyce, at the end of the campaign, said, “When I signed him my fear was not about his ability, as I knew he had ability after working with him at Bolton. But I wasn’t sure he still had the drive and determination to put that back into this league again”.
In the space of 38 games, the 38-year-old had laid to rest all the question marks that had risen upon his signing for the Hammers. For Jaaskelainen, age was just another number. The number that mattered was 166. The Finn produced 166 saves (highest for any goalkeeper in the EPL this season) throughout the campaign and kept West Ham in many a game literally single-handedly. His performances on the field resulted in rewards off it as the Hammers hammered out a deal to keep Jaaskaleinen at Upton Park for one more year.
1) Mohamed Diamé (West Ham United)
When you walk away with three awards at your club’s award dinner, you certainly have had a stellar season. The word “stellar” would be apt to describe Mohamed Diamé in his first season in the claret and blue of West Ham. If Jaaskalainen was the rock at the back for West Ham, Diamé was the pillar in the middle.
Sam Allardyce pulled off yet another coup at West Ham when he was able to lure Diamé to Upton Park after his contract ran out at Wigan. Diamé’s abilities were evident in his performances at Wigan, but he seemed to have found another gear this time around. He used the season as his coming out party, taking his performances up a notch as added some real horse power in the West Ham engine room.
The Senegalese international’s performances have certainly caught the eye of all and sundry. Diamé remained at West Ham after being heavily tipped to join Arsenal in the January transfer window and let his feet do the talking as he put in one robust performance after another in the midfield. A shield for the back four and adept at going forward to help things out, the box-to-box midfielder was a joy to watch, a manager’s dream, someone was able to put in shifts on both ends of the field. Throughout the course of the season, Diamé put in a total of 114 tackles (good enough for 3rd in the league) and helped others like Kevin Nolan and Mark Noble flourish in their own games. The game which really brought out the vitality of the Senegalese was the 3-1 victory over Chelsea at Upton Park, where he changed the outlook of the whole game upon his introduction at half-time.
