Football Guy's Bench and Manager of the Season

Hi and hello Football fans, it's your old pal Roko the Football Guy, whats going down? I hope all is well wherever you are! I writing to you today from the comfort of my desk at work, not sure why I have never done this before as it means I can goof off at work and speed my day up!

Due to the wonderful feedback I got from you guys out there I decided to include a bench of the season to my Manager of the season column. The format is as follows - 1GK 2DF 2MF and 2 FW.

So here it is -

Edwin Van Der Sar

As these guys only managed the bench I deem them not being worthy of a picture, puls Edwin is ugly as sin and I don't wont people to be put off coming to the site!

Other than that VDS had a very good season and it's quite hard not to include the goalkeeper who set a Premiership record for most minutes without letting in a goal. I do think that had a little more to do with the defense in front of him but hey-ho, I doubt Gomes would have managed it!

Jussi had a few supporters amongst my readers but I just feel it would be wrong to keep VDS out of the team all together as breaking those sorts of records don't happen ever year.

Side Note - Calling him VDS does save time, but also makes him sound like a sexually transmitted disease!

G. Neville - Rio, what did you do at the weekend?

Rio - Banged some bird innit brov!

G. Neville - Cool, was she hot?

Rio - Course brov, but I fink she gave me VDS!

Leighton Baines

When your wrong, you say your wrong. I was wrong when I said there had not been any good left backs this season...... I'm sorry.... Thanks for reminding guys.

Baines had a fine season, in fact he had the most assist of any defender and actually was only three of the league lead of ten. His haul of seven was the same amount as Wayne Rooney and one more than C-Ron.

Had I thought about this better yesterday he might just have made the first XI, but just like god's word I can't go back on mine so he will have to settle for a place on the bench and hope for better next season.

Brede Hangeland

Another popular choice amongst the readers and I had considered him, but ultimately he fell short. Fine season from "Big" Brede (isnt that an Irish girls name?) and it will be interesting to see if he is still in a Fulham shirt next season and more importantly if he can play as well as he did this term.

I myself am still not fully sold on Hangeland, but I can't deny, he did have a top season.

Stephen Ireland

Ireland, IRELAND, together standing tall!!! Shoulder, TO SHOULDER, WE'LL ANSWER CITIES CALL!!!

Stephen Ireland or as friend of the site Spurs Pete calls him - the little genie. One of the few people who have a blad head but yet have sideburns as well, apparently according to Pete, Mark Hughes rubs Irelands sideburns before a match and makes a wish...... Obviously not many were football related as City would have done much better but it didn't effect the diminutive Irishman's form and I believe he was a staple of many a fantasy teams midfield.

Basically he's the poor man's Frank Lampard, which anit really that bad of a thing

Andrey Arshavin

I'm struggling to think of another player who had such a big an impact in such short a space of time as Ar Ar Arshavin, Russia's greatest goal machine. Shame it was not enough to help Arsenal achive anything......

But at least Gooners have a whole season of him to look forward to next term and if he keeps the form he had from last season I think he could well become the poor man's C-Ron and by that I mean still expensive in fantasy terms but still a lot cheaper than the big man himself.

Will be interesting to see if he is played in a more advanced role next season or if Wenger keeps him on the wing, I think that decision will be made a lot easier if "dead man walking" Tomas Rosicky comes back from the land of the dead and plays again.

Dirk Kyut

Now, whilst I never actually had deadly Dirk in my fantasy team, I did advise some of the players in my fantasy league (Sportboy T) that he should bring him in.......... Did he take my advice? No..... And in doing so missed out on the 4th highest scoring fantasy player of last season.

Dirk had what I like to call a "sneaky good" season and by that I mean you didn't really notice him scoring but he managed to rack up 12 goals in the league along with 8 assist..... Pretty good huh?

That's actually five more goals than Ashley Young with one less assist, the problem I think Dirk had was that while Young was instrumental to Villa for most of the season, you never really felt that without Dirk Liverpool would suffer and I think that's why he is on the bench and Young is in the first XI.

Robin Van Persie

This was quite a tough decision to make as I didn't want to seem like a "homer" (someone who is blinded by their own team) but if you look at the formula  I used to put RVP on the bench you will see why he's there.

I basically added up the goals and assist each candidate had over the course of the league season and RVP 21 narrowly beat out Agbonlahor, Rooney and Robinho who each got 20, 19 and 19 respectively.

The Dutchman did have a very good season which might have been even better had he not missed most of March and April due to injury, but then again that's like saying the weather would be great in London if it didn't rain so much......

Final Thoughts

Well that's that, despite my fairly high opinion of myself I know that I can't please everyone, but really, who can?

Manager of the Season

Now before I get to the who and why, I would just like to take a moment to acknowledge some of the unlucky losers -

3rd  Sir Alex -  League and League cup double, Champions League Runner up and an FA Cup final - Why didn't he win?!?!?! Well it's because that is whats expected of him and when you think about it the only thing he won which was worth winning was the League...... Again I know I say "ONLY" but lets be fair, they had already won it the previous two years and were favorites to win it again this year.

2nd Roy Hodgeson - Fulham almost went down last season and were one of my favorites to go down this year. But how wrong was I...... Not only did they not go down but they actually achieved a Europa League spot for next season. all in all a great season for the Cottagers.....  But not great enough for me!

And the winner is.........

DAVID MOYES

That's right, the ginger Scot managed to steer Everton back to 5th spot in the league and to their first FA Cup final in 14 years..... Now that normally would not be enough to win the award but the fact Moyes managed to do all this without having any fit strikers for most of the season is truly remarkable.

For the most part he had to rely on his Saved by the Bell combo of little A.C. Slater and lanky Screech or Tim Cahill and Fellaini to you and I to play upfront, couple that with losing Arteta for a good chunk of the season I'm actually quite surprised they finished as high as they did.

And that's pretty much why he wins it for me over Roy Hodgeson, had Fulham had some devastating injuries and not just losing Andy Johnson old Roy might have won. But for me David Moyes is the most worthy candidate and a deserved winner

Take care

Football Guy