While every player’s ultimate aim when the season gets underway is to win the Premier League title, only one team can lift the prestigious trophy. But that doesn’t stop us from rewarding individual players from the other 19 clubs who have caught they eye of fans throughout the season.
The PFA Team of the Year is an honour reserved for the few players who have managed to impress their colleagues. It is a team picked by professional players after all – those who have either competed with or against them over more than 30 games a season.
But a select few somehow slip through the cracks – a trend that occurs every now and then when there are far too many candidates. Someone always misses out and we’ve picked five such players who deserved at least one “call-up”.
5) Xabi Alonso (Liverpool)
The Spanish midfielder is considered a legend at the club during his five-year stint at Anfield and rightly so. The former international, who is set to retire at the end of the 2016/17 season was a dynamic presence in midfield and elevated the club’s potential to fight for trophies – especially on the European front.
Most of the time it’s the league winners that dominate the PFA awards while the best of the rest are more often than not the stars of the other teams. And in all the years Alonso was at the club, it was his teammate and Reds skipper Steven Gerrard who was picked in every team between 2005 and 2009.
But Alonso’s impact at the club was at times underrated. It was his presence that actually liberated Gerrard who teamed up with Fernando Torres to create and score goals. The Spaniard was effective both in attack and defence, even managing to score some spectacular goals.
Of course, Real Madrid realised his true potential as Liverpool went into decline and he soon made the switch. Liverpool were never the same following his departure while Real Madrid won the league and Champions League before his move to Bayern Munich.
4) Gianfranco Zola (Chelsea)
One of few world class all-round forwards in Premier League history, Gianfranco Zola is arguably one of the greatest Italians to have played in England. He only stood five-and-a-half feet tall but could dominate the area near the final third in a league that punished the little guy.
Playing either as a support striker or an attacking midfielder, Zola arrived at Chelsea after the 1996/97 season got underway. And the fans were treated to a player who lit up the field with his trickery on the ball and some sublime goals.
It was no wonder then that his 12 goals in his debut season with the Blues saw him crowned the FWA (Football Writers' Association) Footballer of the Year in 1997. However, there was no place for him in the PFA Team of the Year as Alan Shearer (Newcastle United) and Ian Wright (Arsenal) promptly took up the two spots for forwards.
Zola’s arrival signalled the end of Chelsea’s status as a mid-table club and they soon competed for Champions League spots. Prior to Roman Abramovich’s arrival and the splurge to get quality players in, Zola was undoubtedly the Blues’ biggest star.
3) Pepe Reina (Liverpool)
Eight seasons at Liverpool saw Pepe Reina win one FA Cup (he was the hero in the penalty shootout in the final where he saved three penalties in the win over West Ham in 2006) and a League Cup but he really should have been picked in the Team of the Year at least once.
In three consecutive seasons (2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08), it was the Spaniard who won the Golden Glove when the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United were dominating the Premier League. In those three seasons, he kept 20, 19 and 18 clean sheets respectively – a total of 57!
But every year he was ignored and it was Shay Given (Newcastle United), Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United) and David James (Portsmouth) who were picked. If not for his heroics in goal, the Reds would never have finished in the Top 4 and qualified for the Champions League in every season.
In four consecutive seasons, Reina was a permanent fixture in the starting lineups starting all 38 league games. As the Reds went into decline soon after, Reina was the standout performer – even picking up the club’s Player of the Year award in 2010. By then he was nowhere in the picture to be picked but his exploits in the seasons prior really should have been rewarded.
2) Claude Makelele (Chelsea)
How many players do you know who have made such an impact on the game that they had their name resonate through history? The Panenka penalty? The Cruyff Turn? Well, remember the Makelele role?
The sale of Claude Makelele to Chelsea to sign David Beckham made Real Madrid players what the world was coming to. As Zinedine Zidane famously said, “Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?”
There has been no defensive midfielder quite like him – until now. N’Golo Kante has been voted in the Team of the Year twice now and it makes you wonder if players back then did not realise how pivotal he was to the game.
Tactically disciplined and with the ability to dictate the pace of the game, Makelele was a formidable force in both offense and defence. Positioning himself in front of the back-line, he was ever-alert and stopped attacks before opponents had a chance to build momentum.
He helped Chelsea to two league titles, two League Cups and an FA Cup in five seasons before his age finally slowed him down. He was 30 when he moved to Stamford Bridge after all. But at his peak, it was predictably Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard who were picked in the Team of the Year – ironically a combination that has never worked for England.
1) Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero never making the Team of the Year is a mystery that have left many fans scratching their heads. Signed for £38m in a blockbuster deal in 2011, Aguero was expected to give City the push required to finally land a Premier League title.
Nobody needs reminding of how he did just that in the final game of the season – a stoppage-time winner in the final game of the season to give City the title on Goal Difference. Aguero has since won another league title to add to his tally. In six seasons at the club, he has scored an average of 27 goals a season. If not for an injury-hit campaign in 2012/13, it might have been a lot more.
The Argentine striker has also won a Premier League Golden Boot in 2014/15 when he scored 26 league goals. But that season saw Diego Costa (Chelsea) and a young Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) getting the nod. In other years, he was always second-best to the likes of Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Robin van Persie (Arsenal and Manchester United), Luis Suarez (Liverpool), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) and even Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool).
This might be the last time we see Aguero in the Premier League with City boss Pep Guardiola preferring a more mobile forward in Gabriel Jesus. It was only the Brazilian’s injury that brought Aguero back into the fold. Will we see a resurgence as he adapts or will he move on?
Also read: 2016/17 PFA Team of the Year - The Deserving XI
