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Hazard a prediction: PFA Awards roundup

By on April 27, 2015

One needn’t be Sherlock to work out who was the favorite to win the PFA Player of the Year award; indeed, Eden Hazard all but had the award in the bag. Hazard has helped lead Chelsea within touching distance of the title as well as a League Cup triumph at Wembley earlier this season. Recently, the Belgian forward scored the winner for the Blues against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge and the 24-year-old has scored 13 goals and made eight assists in 33 Premier League outings. Voted for by his fellow professionals from the other nineteen Premier League clubs (nobody can vote for a player on the same team), the award only provides further confirmation that he terrorized defenses, if it wasn’t already obvious. This personal triumph also suggests Chelsea’s 2012 £32 million signing from French club Lille has developed under the guidance of Jose Mourinho and has moved up a gear from last season, when he won the young player accolade at Grosvenor Hotel in London.

In fact, the accolade only confirms that Hazard has reached a level where even Chelsea will have to work to keep hold of him. In 2012 Robin van Persie won the award with Arsenal and promptly left to join Manchester United for £24million, Gareth Bale won the 2013 award with Tottenham Hotspur and left to join Real Madrid for a world record fee of £86million that summer, while Luis Suarez won at Liverpool but departed to Barcelona for £75million soon after. Yet Jose Mourinho has maintained a respectful standard and Hazard is by no means bigger than the club itself. However, he has already acted to prevent history from repeating itself and warding off interest from Real Madrid by claiming that Hazard is worth ‘£100million per leg’. Moreover, Chelsea have the backing of Premier League titles.

Harry Kane does it again!
The Young Player of the Year award to the obvious choice — like a race between Usain Bolt and, well… anybody — with Tottenham’s Harry Kane nipping Hazard to the award. It was logical that if Kane was not to win the main prize, his youthfulness made him a shoo-in for the young award. He is the first man since Gary Lineker to score thirty goals in a season for Spurs and he memorably scored on his England debut at Wembley against Lithuania. The 21-year-old was named up front in the PFA Team of the Season, alongside Chelsea’s Diego Costa, despite only becoming a league regular last November.

The Englishman looks set to compete with Manchester’s City Sergio Aguero (who has twenty-one goals compared to Kane’s twenty league strikes) for the Golden Boot at the end of this season. Given his fantastic run of form, Kane will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Hazard and go from winning the young award to the main event next season. Tottenham will hope to see Kane’s future at White Hart Lane as he blossoms and has even wore the captain’s armband in recent games. It would have been an injustice not to see Kane come away with some sort of personal achievement accolade at the end of this campaign.

They earned it on Merit!
Departing Premier League, legends and former England midfielders Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard shared the PFA Merit award. The dynamic duo will leave the Premier League for Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States in the summer, after collecting 220 England caps between them. Lampard, on-loan at Manchester City from New York City FC, will be finally heading for the Big Apple in July, while Gerrard will pack his Anfield bags for the final time and jet off to LA Galaxy this summer, after his seventeen-year long career at Liverpool. Their contributions to club and country and the fact so many claimed they could not work together in midfield for England makes it appropriate that they cross the Atlantic together after sharing this final award in England.

PFA Team of the Year (Note the abundance of Chelsea players and 4-1-3-2 formation):
GK: David De Gea (Manchester United); LB: Ryan Bertrand (Southampton); CB: Gary Cahill (Chelsea), John Terry (Chelsea); RB: Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea); DM: Nemanja Matic (Chelsea); LW: Eden Hazard (Chelsea); AM: Phillipe Coutinho (Liverpool); RW: Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal); CF: Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur); CF: Diego Costa (Chelsea)

Photo credit: Warrenfish on Flickr

About Richard Lewis

Richard Lewis can relate almost anything to football and quite often does! You may have seen Richard's previous ideas and work in the BBC Match of the Day Magazine, from 2011 to present. He is a Manchester United and England fan, but has gone to see Leyton Orient play with his O's season ticket in the 2013/14 campaign. Aside from football, Richard has written articles on Doctor Who and studies English Language and Linguistics at the University of Westminster. Aspiring sports journalist.