PFA Releases Award Shortlists, Newcastle Players Snubbed

The Professional Footballers' Association today released their shortlists for the Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year awards, and no Newcastle players have been named. Nominees for Player of the Year include Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Joe Hart, and Scott Parker (!). The Young Player of the Year nominees, which honor players under the age of 24, are a collective joke. Nominated are Sergio Aguero, Danny Welbeck, Kyle Walker, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Daniel Sturridge, and Gareth Bale.

That the likes of Demba Ba, Fabricio Coloccini, and Tim Krul have been ignored for these awards is already a source of much consternation for Toon fans. (Side note: Tim Krul just turned 24 earlier this month. Would that have disqualified him for consideration from the Young POY award? I haven't been able to find any clear-cut information on this anywhere. Hooray transparency!) I get the outrage. It's more than a little annoying that people continue to not take this club seriously. However, it's not something I'm getting too worked up about, personally. Undeserving players win these awards all the time, and people know it. Why worry about something nobody is going to take seriously anyway? We don't need the validation of the PFA to know that this team is going places. I'm over it.