It’s been a long, hard season for Everton Football Club, its players and especially for us supporters. Once again, our beloved club has put us through the wringer, testing our patience, loyalty and stamina… and come the season end, it was us, you the Everton fanbase that was so massively instrumental in the club remaining in the top flight of English football.
The quite remarkable coming together of Evertonians since the arrival of Frank Lampard and commencing with the ultra partisan atmosphere for the visit of Leeds United and right through to the incredible final home game against Crystal Palace was something to behold. And everybody involved with and partaking in those magnificent displays of devotion, feeling, passion and unadulterated support for our club is to be congratulated.
From the appointment of a certain former RS manager who can remain as nameless as he was unwanted, through the darkest of periods in which we couldn’t buy a result as we slipped lower and lower down the table, to the point where the club allowed him to sell a popular player and subsequently sacked the manager… to the appointment of a new manager and him clearly ‘getting the club’ and through those momentous final few weeks of quite outstanding support… you/we/all of us have stood firm and stood proud to be Blues.
At this point, we would normally have a quick month by month run through of the season but after this near calamitous campaign, it’d probably not be overly welcome.
So, let’s cut straight to the chase and get to what the article is all about, the announcement of the GrandOldTeam.com Player of the Season. As everyone is no doubt painfully aware, we run a Man of the Match Poll on every competitive game and we accumulate all those votes for the Player of the Month and all leading up to the Player of the Season on the grand totals of all those votes.
Here’s a quick recap of the monthly winners…
August – Abdoulaye Doucoure with Demarai Gray and Allan in second and third respectively.
September – Andros Townsend followed by Abdoulaye Doucoure and Demarai Gray.
October – Abdoulaye Doucoure followed by Demarai Gray and Anthony Gordon.
November – Fabian Delph followed by Jordan Pickford and Demarai Gray.
December – Richarlison followed by Demarai Gray and Jordan Pickford.
January – Anthony Gordon followed by Demarai Gray and Richarlison.
February – Anthony Gordon followed by Jordan Pickford and Donny van de Beek.
March – Anthony Gordon followed by Alex Iwobi and Allan.
April – Vitalii Mykolenko by one vote from Richarlison with Anthony Gordon in third place.
May – Jordan Pickford followed by Alex Iwobi and Dele Alli.
The game that produced the biggest vote was the 3-0 home demolition of Leeds United with, probably understandably, the final day defeat at the Arsenal seeing the lowest turn out of voters – must have been due to the weather or lack of transport to the polling booths.
As we stress, every vote cast in the Man of the Match polls counts towards both the monthly and now this, the Player of the Season award and we’re delighted to announce, in ascending order, the top five vote accumulators as voted for by the fans. And at the risk of labouring the point, another massive Thank You goes to everybody who casts their vote, almost religiously game by game.
In fifth place following an excellent start to the season, and opening day goal against Southampton, before being blighted by injury – Abdoulaye Doucoure.
Fourth place, also in a season affected by injury but with a stunning final few weeks and an incredible will to succeed and win and who most certainly ‘gets us’ – Richarlison.
In similar fashion to that of Doucs, an excellent start and injury affected campaign saw third place secured by the crosser of that all-important free kick against Crystal Palace – Demarai Gray.
In the runner-up spot of the accumulated voting is a player all Evertonians have the highest regard for, even if certain sections of the media do not – but we don’t care what the RS say do we ?
A massive thanks for his efforts and some absolutely world class goalkeeping, in second place – Jordan Pickford.
Our winner is a player of whom some said, ‘he can’t play 90 minutes’… and didn’t really begin to accumulate votes until November when injuries to others gave him the chance to impress and cement his place in the starting eleven. However having been given his opportunity, he did what we always hope of an emerging young talent, he grasped it with both hands and became a massively influential and popular player, and possibly one of the most fouled, suggesting other teams recognised the threat he posed to them…
And so, we proudly announce that the GrandOldTeam.com Player of the Season for 2021/22 as voted for by the fans throughout the course of the season is Anthony Gordon.
