Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher used their final appearance of the season on Monday Night Football to go through their end of term awards for the Premier League.
The Premier League concludes this weekend, with Manchester City already crowned champions for the fifth time in the past six years. Pep Guardiola’s side have won 12 matches in succession to breeze past Arsenal and claim the trophy, but City players have not scooped all the awards from the Sky Sports pundits.
The former Manchester United and Liverpool defenders were tasked with choosing players and managers across a variety of categories, as well as picking out their biggest surprises and favourite games. As ever, the punditry duo did not agree on many things. Here are their choices.
Manager of the season
Eddie Howe – Carragher
Pep Guardiola – Neville
Carragher explained his decision like this: “The only reason I went for Eddie Howe was because I feel Man City have been in a position to almost win a treble most years. They get to March and April – obviously it’s really difficult to do that and they just falter in something – whereas I just can’t believe what happened last season to this season with Newcastle in terms of where they were when Eddie Howe came in to where they are now: Champions League football”.
Player of the season
Erling Haaland – Carragher
Erling Haaland – Neville
The only category in which the duo were unanimous. “It’s the first time that the Premier League have signed a player that we think’s going to go on to be the best player in the world, or is already at that level,” Neville said.
Carragher added: “He’s an absolute freak, he’s a special player and these records are going to continue to be broken.”
Young player of the season
Bukayo Saka – Carragher
Martin Odegaard – Neville
“I do think Odegaard has been Arsenal’s best player, I just didn’t pick Odegaard because I thought he was too old! To me, 24 does seem to be too old to be the young player [of the season],” Carragher said.
On Odegaard, Neville said: “Even in this last difficult period I think Odegaard has been outstanding, he really has. His quality on the ball, the way in which he plays, I think he’s a player that would fit into Manchester City’s team and go on there with real ease.”
Signing of the season
Morgan Gibbs-White – Carragher
Casemiro – Neville
Carragher initially chose Manuel Akanji, before changing his mind. “Morgan Gibbs-White, I wouldn’t say single-handedly kept Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, but every time I watch him he’s justified his price tag and I think he must be really close to the England squad,” he explained. “I really do believe he should be in the next England squad.”
Neville explained that he couldn’t pick Haaland again, so chose Casemiro. “I genuinely don’t think they (Man Utd) would be anywhere near top four or doing what they’re doing in those competitions if it wasn’t for Casemiro,” he said. “The impact he’s had on that team, he makes them 20 to 30 per cent better.”
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Biggest surprise
Lisandro Martinez – Carragher
Brighton 1-5 Everton – Neville
Carragher expressed his doubts about Martinez at the start of the season, saying he was too small to play centre-back in the Premier League. He has not eaten his words.
He said: “Any centre back coming to the Premier League under six foot you think is going to have a problem, but he hasn’t. Every player has weaknesses and the best players hide their weaknesses. I just looked at that and thought how could you overcome that in the Premier League? I wasn’t the tallest centre back and I used to worry that I’d go into games and get found out and bullied in the air.”
Favourite game
Liverpool 7-0 Man Utd – Carragher
World Cup final – Neville
Carragher: “It’s been a poor season for Liverpool, you can’t deny that, but that game will still be getting talked about in 10 or 20 years’ time, there is no doubt about it. To beat your rivals 7-0 is laughable, isn’t it? 7-0! What was going on? And we didn’t even play that well!”
Team of the season
Carragher
Alisson; Trippier, Dias, Botman, Zinchenko; Odegaard, Rodri, De Bruyne; Salah, Kane, Haaland
Neville
Pope; Trippier, Saliba, Dias, Estupinan; Odegaard, Rodri, De Bruyne; Saka, Haaland, Martinelli
