Why Bruno Fernandes is the Premier League Player of the Season!
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Hello, everybody. It's Thursday morning, and this is your latest episode of It's All Kicking Off, which I'm afraid for the first couple of minutes is going to sound a little bit like a confessional. Chris Sutton is here. Chris, I'm not a huge fan of quizzes, but one thing that really, really irritates me with quizzes is when the guy asking the questions doesn't know the answers. Have you any idea where I may be going with this?

Yes, I have, yeah. I have social media the same as you, and you got pulled up, didn't you, for a question which you asked and didn't quite know the answer to. You forgot the German manager, didn't you? Well, so I think we've...

At the last count, I think we're coming up to 200 episodes of It's All Kicking Off, which is amazing, really. It's amazing that they've let us carry on this long. But I do wonder whether we've reached a new low. On Monday's show... Hang on, don't bring we into this. When you say we, I am not part of this debacle. I didn't ask the question. Well, as a former...

As a distinguished ex-pro and a highly regarded member of the mainstream media, it's all kicking off BBC Sky News.

TNT occasionally, or did they bin you? I can't remember. Many, many others. You probably should have known. But let's cut to the chase. Hang on a minute. Do you include sleep deprivation in sort of when you ask me a question, when you throw a question at me? Do you include sleep deprivation in the answers? Don't make excuses.

Okay. When you get, I was always told, and I am told, when you make a mistake, you've got to own it. So we're owning this. I'm owning it and you're going to own your part. I need to tell people what it's about. People may not have listened on Monday. If they didn't, they got away with one. On Monday, I asked you how many different nationalities of coach had won the Premier League. Okay. It's a very simple question.

your answer is six, which astonished me because that was a number that I had. I'd done my research, I looked it up, and I had six in my head. So we spent a good five minutes congratulating each other, only to subsequently find out that we were both wrong. The answer is actually seven. But not only is the answer seven,

So Arne Slott on Sunday, presumably when Liverpool beat Tottenham or draw against him, Arne Slott will become the eighth nationality. Not only are there seven and not six, even when we thought there were six, I only read out five. So I made two mistakes. So let's just go from the top. The nationalities are Scottish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Chilean,

The one that I forgot to write down was German, bloke called Jürgen Klopp. And for some reason, I forgot to read out the bloke who's won the last four, Pep Guardiola, Spanish. So we missed Pep and we missed Klopp. I mean, what is this to say? It's not we, you did. So when I read them out- You've got the wrong list. I'm taking no part in that. Yeah. When I read them out-

When I read him out, you didn't think, oh, he's missed Pep Guardiola, that I might need to pull him up on it. Henry R. Producer didn't spot it. Henry R. Producer then didn't spot it in the edit.

when he was editing. But then, you know, he's got an Arsenal fetish. So as far as he's concerned, there's only one nationality, one nationality who's ever won the Premier League. Arsene Wenger. You were right when you said to me just then, you didn't think. That was right. Bang on from you. So there we go. Arne Slott will become the eighth. So one random guy on social media has really got you. Well, I'm glad he's pointed it out. Getting near the end of the season.

So this was WillsJ87 on Spotify. Seven nationalities have won the league, soon to be eight. Please do your research. That felt like a stern ticking off from my parents. And there was a kinder one from Alex Byrne. He said, don't forget a certain German manager for Liverpool. So there we go. We've put it right. What was it? Thick as mince?

Thick as mince. I was described as by one of our listeners on Apple recently. Thick.

As mints. There we go. Anyway, that's that out of the way. Arne Slott will become the eighth. He'll become the first Dutch manager. The eighth different nationality. We'll remember that now, won't we? Forever. I've been thinking about nothing else since Monday, Chris. So I hate it when I make mistakes. You may say to me, well, you make enough of them. And I do. But I absolutely hate it when I make mistakes. Just do your research.

I got angry with Henry for a while, in my head. I didn't articulate it. Got really angry with Henry for about 10 minutes on Monday, blaming him for not picking me up on the error. End of the day. He's a kid. End of the day. He's just a kid. He wouldn't know anything after 2015. I'm not sure he actually listens. Anyway, my mistake. Got to ruin it. Right, question four. This isn't a quiz. This is just a question. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about our managers of the season. So we're moving on.

Player of the season. I've cast my vote at the Football Writers Association ballot, player of the season. Can you tell us? I have my top three. My top three in reverse order. Reverse order. All right, you go first. You go first. Thank you. Mo Salah, number three. Alexander Izak, number two. And my vote for player of the year this season goes to, drumroll, as my daughter likes to go, drumroll,

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes is my play of the season. Are you joking? Am I laughing? Yeah, there's a wind up. You are joking. I can see a big daft look on your face. That's absolutely ridiculous. That's just my face. No, but you are. That's just your face.

I'm not disputing Bruno hasn't been Manchester United's best player this season, but you're saying Bruno Fernandes has been the best player in the Premier League this season. Is he the best player in the Premier League? He's not the best player in the Premier League. But his contribution to his club has been more significant to me than any other player in the Premier League.

He's not the best player in the Premier League. If you're going to give it to the best player in the Premier League, you just give it to Kevin De Bruyne up until this season. You just give it to Kevin De Bruyne every year. It's not the best player. We're talking about this season. It's about who's made, to me, the voters about who's made the most notable contribution, the most important contribution to his team's

this season and for me it's Bruno Fernandes he's Manchester United's player of the year he's not he's not the best player in the Premier League you will you'll be the only person who who votes for Bruno Fernandes that's the player of the season that's fine but to me he has made the most notable contribution to his club of any player in where have they finished where are they going to finish in the Premier League

Well, you know Scott Parker won it once and West Ham went down. Well, I didn't. That wasn't the question. Okay. So look, the vote, I've written a column about this. It'll be appearing on Mail Sport five o'clock Thursday evening in the print edition of the newspaper on Friday. You could get more abuse for this than you did.

about your daft elitist Manchester United and Spurs. Yeah, maybe. But at least it won't be from my United fans. The longer the season's gone on, you're going mad. That's what you've done. You've gone to appease the Manchester United fans who gave you a bit of flak. To me, it's about the player who's made the most notable contribution to his club this season.

Manchester United, there are excuses everywhere for players at Manchester United. In a way, they are a club set up for failure at the moment. They're unstable at the top of the club. They've got a new manager. They've got an inadequate playing squad. Excuses everywhere to players to drop their levels. And Bruno Fernandes, to me, has managed to transcend all of that and kept his levels high.

immaculately high at a time when others have not. And to me, that is what really, really good players do. You and I have sat on this podcast before and criticised Bruno Fernandes, criticising for his captaincy, criticising for somebody's behaviour on the field. All of those criticisms were valid

at the time. Occasionally, he still lets himself down when it comes to arm waving and gesticulating at players and referees, et cetera. But on the whole, the improvement in him as a player and as a captain has been absolutely immense. And when I think about good players, I think about great players. I think about players who can keep their levels high

when other players are dropping theirs. It's easy or easier to play well in a good team when everything's going well. It's very, very difficult to play well when everybody else around you is struggling. And when I think about players who've done that in the past,

Not just Manchester United players, but he's three from United. Roy Keane did it. David Beckham did it when he played for England. Brian Robson did it in a struggling Manchester United team. John Terry always did it at Chelsea. Steven Gerrard always did it at Liverpool. And I think Bruno Fernandes has done that this year. He has kept his levels high when others haven't. And I absolutely...

The mind boggles when you think where Manchester United would be right now without Bruno Fernandes. And that is why he is my player of the season, not just for Manchester United, but across the whole of the Premier League. Well, yeah. Well, look, to a point, a very small point, I understand his importance to Manchester United. But in terms of...

player of decision you've you've just sort of tinkered with how we are viewing that's ridiculous but i mean uh i'll give you i'll give you my three then okay can i have a joint third yeah is if that's all right i'm gonna in fact i'm not gonna have a joint third i was gonna have declan rice as a joint third but i'm gonna say chris wood

For similar reasons to you and Bruno Fernandes, his importance to Nottingham Forest, I think the way that Chris Wood would have been viewed going into the season, the goals which he scored, he's led the line superbly and Nottingham Forest

a rim with a shout of a Champions League spot and went to win the FA Cup. A large part of it is down to him, a player who I think has been, you know, viewed as a journeyman over the years. So Chris Wood would be my number three. And then, yeah,

two and one were difficult trying to split Liverpool. You said you were going to have a joint. Well, I was. I was going to have Declan Rice, but he's fourth. I just, his recent performances, maybe, I can't, trying to think back to the start of the season, but,

But Rice, the way that he... He hasn't carried Arsenal, but he's been an absolute machine, shining light, a player I would have loved to have had in my team. So he's going to sneak into number four, but we can't have four, can we? But number two and one, Virgil van Dijk, number two, and Mo Salah. Mo van Dijk, just quickly, I think...

He is back to his very best, I want to say his very best before he got the injury.

And, you know, he's a leader. We know everything that he is. He's a wonderful passer of the ball. But he's been so integral in Liverpool, going to retain, not retain, they're going to win the Premier League. And then Mo Salah, just looking at his numbers again, and I know he's gone off the boil a little bit now, but his numbers are extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary. Once again, this season with 27 goals, 18 assists, unbelievable.

I mean, it's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous, his numbers. And it's not just for his whole contribution for Liverpool over the years. It's this season that, you know, a difference maker at the top end of the pitch. The hardest thing to do is score goals. You know, he does it brilliantly. And then, you know, the number of assists surprised me as well. So, you know, Mo Salah, it has to be.

The Football Writers Association Player of the Year tends to pretty much always come from a player who has finished in the top two in the league. It usually comes from the champions, actually.

I'm just looking at something here. There's a reason for that. In seven of the last 10 seasons, the player of the year has come from the champions. And only once, when Salah won it in 2018, when Liverpool were fourth, has it come from a player who's played for a team outside of the top two. So I think it will be Mo Salah. I think most of my colleagues will vote for Mo Salah. I think he'll probably win the other one as well, the PFA player of the year. And two of them tend to be...

pretty much go side by side although the players the players vote earlier for some reason the players vote earlier in the season than the journalists which was a bit weird don't don't know why you don't ask players to vote at the end of the season or maybe just take some maybe just take some so long always thought that maybe just take some so long to do it they need to give them a little bit longer yeah to work out the spelling well

Well, so there you go. So look, we could argue all day, but we won't. We've made a point. I've made mine. You've made yours. I've knocked you down there. Well, I mean, you've gone for Bruno. You've undermined your own argument a little bit by saying to me, oh, you can't possibly say that Bruno Fernandes is the best player in the league. Well, you can't say that Chris Wood is the third best player in the league because he's not.

but you've chosen him because of the contribution he's made. Because of their league position as well. It's all in the mix. So I haven't undermined my argument at all. I'm just looking. I'm sorry. I've just got the top half of the table in front of me here.

oh, I can't see Manchester United in that top half. So that means that you can only... I can see Nottingham Forest in that top half. And a large part of that is down to Chris Wood. So league position does matter because if he had had that much of an influence, Manchester United, the great Manchester United, the mighty Manchester United would be a lot better.

That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. One player can't make the difference between 15th in the league and 15th in the league. It's not as ridiculous as saying with a... Utterly ridiculous. It's not as ridiculous as sitting there with a straight face and saying that Bruno Fernandes is the best player in the Premier League this season. So you're saying to me that if...

Manchester United or Tottenham or West Ham or any player down at the bottom of the league had a player who scored 50 goals this season, then he couldn't be in the running for a player. How many has Bruno scored? If Bruno scored 50, I might give you it.

I might sort of understand that, but that's such a daft comment. What you've done, you've had a bit of stick off Manchester United fans and you've melted. You've melted. You're trying to appease them. Absolutely gutless. Who else? Is anybody else going to vote for Bruno?

He scored 16 goals. Anybody, you know what we think? Let us know what you think. You can find us on the socials. Find us on XI, the one with the silly name, and Chris is the one with the famous name. Who is your top three? Who are your top three? Mine, my three to one is Salah, Isaac, Fernandez. Chris's is Wood. Stop interrupting me. Chris's is Wood.

van dyke and salah mr obvious strikes again let us know what you think you can find us on the social you can find us um on the show notes at spotify or indeed apple and while you're there please do hit the follow button follow button and leave us a rating this is a paid advertisement from better help life can get overwhelming and stress and anxiety have a way of creeping up on us

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Leeds are promoted to the Premier League. Burnley are promoted to the Premier League. Congratulations to Daniel Farke and congratulations to Scott Parker, Chris Wilder and Sheffield United who are going to have to come again through the playoffs.

Chris, our chief sports reporter, Mike Keegan, has written on Mail Online today, Thursday, and indeed in the print edition of the newspaper, that Leeds may be looking at other candidates as manager to lead them into the Premier League. Not convinced that Farker is the man. Before...

I ask you about that. I'm just going to say one thing that when, uh, this isn't my opinion, by the way, Chris, I'm not trying to lead you, but this is just a factual thing. I know. I know exactly what you're going to say. Okay. But I'm just going to outline it for people who don't know. So when Daniel Farker got, no, it's promoted into the premier league, um,

five or six years ago. The first season, 2019-20, they finished bottom with 21 points and five wins. Farker kept his job, got Norwich back up again. And the next season, he was sacked immediately

after taking two points from his first 10 games. At the back end of that first season in the Premier League and at the front end of his second season. He was sacked. He was sacked. Now, I'm going to stop you there because that isn't the whole story. Just let me explain some context. Can I just say the two points from 10 games? He wasn't sacked from two points from 10 games. He was sacked after beating Brentford five points from 11 games. So that's when he was sacked.

Let's be exact and we'll get that guy. We'll get one of those guys emailing in. The point I was going to make, if had you let me, is that at the end of the first season when Norwich went down, they lost 10. They finished that season by losing 10 on the spin in the Premier League. They started the next Premier League season by losing six on the spin. You lost 16 Premier League games consecutively, which I think is a record. So that's the argument against Daniel Farker as a Premier League manager.

Now, the floor is yours, Chris, to advance the argument for Daniel Farker as a Premier League manager. Well, look, do I have a problem with Leeds changing...

Changing managers after Daniel Farker gets them promoted, I think it's extremely harsh. If it happens. If it happens. Which it may not. And if they can get somebody with the far greatest skill set, and to be honest, I don't know, that's very subjective. What I would say, not that it matters too much to you, but if you asked any Norwich City fan,

Would they take Daniel Farker back? They would in an absolute heartbeat. If Leeds spend wisely, something which Norwich didn't do when Daniel Farker was at the helm, then they may have given themselves an opportunity. But we know how difficult it is for promoter clubs to stay in the Premier League.

I mean, look, it would certainly seem clear if they were to get rid of Daniel Farquhar. I agree. Let's see what happens. Great story by Mike. One thing I'd say before we move on is that I suppose...

In any other business apart from football, you could say that it would be quite normal for a company to say to someone, say a chief executive, to say, right, you've taken us this far along the roads where we want to be. Thank you very much. You were brilliant for what you've done. But we now want to move to the next level. And for that next level, we think we can find somebody better. That would happen in business, whatever business you chose. That could happen in business. It does happen all the time. It doesn't tend to happen in football because we have this

concept of loyalty and rewarding people. And there's a lot to be said for that. However, Leeds might look at that and say, we've hired a guy to get us out of the championship because we've seen him do before twice with Norwich City. And he's done exactly what we've hired him to do. However, what we now need is somebody with a record of doing well in the Premier League and he doesn't have that.

That might be the way they are looking at it. I'm not saying that would not feel deeply unfair on Daniel Farker because managers grow. Recruitment's important, as you say. People change, people get better. If you cut everybody's legs off as soon as they, just because they failed a couple of times before, then nobody in life would ever get anywhere. So it would seem very, very harsh. All I'm saying is maybe that's the way they're looking at it. Burnley are going to come up with leads. As you mentioned, Scott Parker's done a magnificent job. I want to say one thing quickly.

Incredible what Scott has done at Burnley. They sold 20 players in the summer transfer window last summer. 20 players, 15 came in. When they beat Cardiff 5-0 in the second game of the season, Scott Parker picked a certain team. Two weeks later, as the transfer window closed and they drew one all at home to Blackburn, the team was cut.

That team was completely different. Somehow, Scott Parker has ridden all of that out. Players had to sell, Burnley had to sell players because of money, financial reasons. He's ridden that out. He's got them promoted. Chris, have you seen the defender, Maxime Esteve, play at all? Because I watched him play against Sheffield United on Monday and thought he was absolutely superb. He was one of those players who came in. French defender. He looks like the type of player you could build a defence around next season.

Yeah, I think that's been the key to Burnley this season. Their defensive record and their defensive stability. I had a look across the back line. Roberts, Egan, Riley, Esteve and Pires, they've played a lot of games. So that consistency and that sort of continuity and understanding has been there. And look, I mean, the argument now will be, well, is that...

Is that the best way to go about staying in the Premier League? Having a really solid back line? Yes, frankly. Yes, it is. Yes, but

But then you can flip that and say, well, I don't know how many nil-nils Burnley have been involved in this season, but a lot. Do they have enough at the top end of the pitch? So there's always that balance. I think their top scorer this season, I'll ask you, has it a guess who their top scorer is this season? Might be Josh Brownhill in midfield. There you go. Great guess. Great guess. He's scored two in the long time. I don't know whether you had that down in front of you. Good at quizzes, aren't you? It was my dad's team, wasn't it?

Yeah. So no, but the whole point is Josh Brownhill being top scorer tells you everything. I think Zach Fleming is the top scorer. Don't know that one. Is he Premier League quality? Is he, you know, and that's, and that's the sort of payoff. That's the level, you know, we know what happened last time Burnley were in the Premier League fantasy football under Vincent company. And now they're going to go, you know, it looks like they're going to be more pragmatic about,

But you've just said it, mate. You've just said it. The words, you use the magic word, balance, balance. Yes. That's what it is. Balance. Yeah. And balance and players and the quality of player. And you look at, you know, little old Ipswich this season, they have in fairness tried to play with balance, but the players just aren't at the level and that is,

is going to be Scott Parker's issue and the conundrum he has to try and solve. Spend your money well. Spend your money well, Burnley. Spend your money well. Play with balance. Remember, a clean sheet is everything in football. A clean sheet is everything. You know what, Chris? I'm going to say something. A clean sheet, actually, in the Premier League is everything these days. Because if you had...

38-0-0s. You'd stay up. You'd stay up with 38 points by a mile these days. You would. You're comfortable. You know what I mean? You'd stay up by, it used to be 40 points. Now it's about 25. 38-0-0s, you'd stay up. You'd stay up. Let's bring the excitement back. Best league in the world. And then I could choose the Burnley goalkeeper as player of the season. Right. Two FA Cup semi-finals this weekend. There's not that much to say about them, so we won't. We've covered it before. All I've got to say is,

Palace have never won it. Palace have never won it. They've never won anything. They've never won anything, absolutely. Well, they have done. They did win this sort of, was it the auto win screen in 1990? You're throwing the stats at me today. Something like that. Something like that. Probably got the wrong decade. Palace probably got the wrong club.

So Palace have never won it. They play Villa on Saturday. They haven't won it for 67 years. Okay. And then on Sunday, Forest play City. Forest haven't won it for 65 years. Meanwhile, Man City will just be pissed off because they didn't win it last year when they lost the final to Manchester United. We think it's an absorbing matchup.

we're not going to spend a lot of time because there's not much to say I think we all know what we want to happen we want to have two new teams in the final apologies to Manchester City but I think for neutrals we'd love to see a Forest Villa final Forest Palace final would we not

Yeah, absolutely. We would. It would be a great story. But if Manchester City get there, you know, fair play to them. It's all about earning the right, isn't it? But it'd be great to see Nottingham Forest finish the season and finish it strong. It would be terrible for my Nottingham Forest to sort of wilt away.

And Palace, they were good last night against Arsenal, weren't they? Yes, I was there. Really deserved to win that game. And their record against Villa, I love all these sort of Indian sign things. Their record this season against Villa, they walloped Villa last time out at Selhurst Park 4-1. I think they knocked them out of the League Cup earlier this season as well. They're unbeaten.

against Villa. So how does that work? Is that one way the job clearly isn't done? Villa will want the end to the season. They're now after losing to City. They're under pressure to finish in a Champions League spot. We talked about the importance of that financially. But wouldn't it be great for Unai Emery to finish off with a trophy, which...

He probably deserves. But Palace, great story. It would be great to see them win a proper trophy. You know who I haven't qualified for the Champions League yet, by the way? Arsenal.

Arsenal haven't qualified for Champions League yet, even though they might win it. They're not qualified. I was at the Emirates on Wednesday night, last night. I have to say, won't go deep into it. Sounds a bit unfair. We were well ahead of next Tuesday's first leg against PSG. But you remember when they beat Man City 5-1 on the 2nd of February at home and

everybody thought, wow, liftoff, Arsenal for the title. By the time they play their next league game in 10 days or so, I think it's against Bournemouth, they'll have won four league games in three months. Four league games in three months.

Mikel Arteta, that is not the way to finish off a Premier League season. He's prioritising. No, that's not true. You're getting more and more controversial. You've got Bruno as player of the year in Arsenal to finish outside of a Champions League spot. That's the headlines in the post. That's ridiculous. They've been prioritising for about a week. They've not been prioritising since February. Chris, they've fallen off. They've fallen off the dial.

I know they've had injuries. I know they've had injuries, et cetera. They've fallen off the dial remarkably. If they win the Champions League, it'll be magnificent for them. If they don't, there will be some questions for Mikel Arteta to answer during the summer. Arne Slott won't be answering any questions apart from, how did you do it, Arne? That'll be the question I would imagine that he'll be answering. And are you surprised, Arne, that Bruno Fernandes won the Player of the Year ahead of Mo Salah? Yeah, I'm sure he'll give us stuff. He'll laugh, he'll laugh.

laugh is right it'll laugh you out of town right thanks everybody that's the end of this one we'll see you on monday

Hello, it's Ian here from It's All Kicking Off. I hope you're enjoying listening to the show. We really enjoy making it and would love to make it even better for you. So we're running a short survey to find out more about you, our listeners, so that we can continue to bring you episodes that will make you complain in the comments about our questionable opinions. It only takes two minutes and would be so valuable to Chris and I. The link is in the show notes. Thanks and back to the episode.