This week saw the announcement of the nominees for the 2014/15 PFA Player Of The Year Award, as Eden Hazard and Diego Costa of league leaders Chelsea were nominated along with David De Gea of Manchester United, Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez, Harry Kane of Spurs, and Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho.
Some have raised questions over the inclusion of Coutinho, and many were surprised when John Terry announced that he gave the Brazilian his vote, but Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has revealed that Terry's choice was part of a secret tactical voting system that PFA representatives from each club will use to ensure that their teammate has the best chance of winning the award.
Carragher is speaking from experience, as he suggests that John Terry will have instructed his teammates to vote for the likes of Philippe Coutinho, and avoid voting for David De Gea and Harry Kane, because he believes the latter two will receive a lot of votes, where as someone like Coutinho may not threaten the Chelsea duo.
So who will be voted PFA Player of the Year? Eden Hazard is the hot favourite but whoever wins will have plenty of tactical voting to thank.
I’m sure Hazard and the other leading contenders — in my mind David de Gea and Harry Kane — will benefit from their team-mates being careful with who they vote for. John Terry recently revealed he had chosen Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho — who has been very good but not great — as his nomination. There’s no way Terry can seriously believe Coutinho has been better than De Gea and Kane this season! There is more to it than meets the eye.
John, I am almost certain, will have gone around Chelsea’s dressing room when the ballot papers came in and told the squad — given that you cannot choose one of your team-mates — under no circumstances should they vote for De Gea or Kane, who are Hazard’s biggest challengers. I’m sure the same happened in the Spurs and United dressing rooms.
Carragher then admits that he used similar tactics to help out Steven Gerrard back in 2006:
How do I know? I did exactly the same thing in 2006 when Steven Gerrard won! I was Liverpool’s PFA representative back then and I made it clear that, for Stevie to win, nobody should vote for Thierry Henry or Frank Lampard! You might think that’s unfair but it is the same in every dressing room.
Is this a clever way of tilting the odds in your teammates favour? Or does it devalue the entire process? Either way, Eden Hazard is the firm favourite to scoop the award, with David De Gea believed to be his main challenger, so it remains to be seen if this strategy of will have any effect when the winner is announced at the end of the season.
via The Daily Mail.
