The Scottish PFA have announced their nominees for this years ‘Player of the Year’ award. The list consists of Celtic trio Kris Commons, Virgil van Dijk and Fraser Forster. Kilmarnock striker Kris Boyd completes the list of contenders.

All four have had terrific seasons and deserve the recognition.

Goalie Forster has enjoyed a tremendous term in goal, the English internationalist broke the Scottish cleansheet record. His performances should be enough to get him in the England World Cup squad in my humble opinion.

Dutch defender van Dijk has settled in at Celtic Park and has already become indispensable. The 22 year old centre back adds class and composure at the back. His impressive performances have won admirers down south with both Manchester clubs reportedly interested in signing him in the summer.

Killie would probably be languishing in the dreaded play-off position in the Scottish Premiership if it wasn’t for hitman Boyd’s nineteen league goals this season. The striker has revived his career with his return to Ayrshire, so much so that Gordon Strachan has recalled him for international duty.

But even with all these accomplishments from his rivals for the ‘Player of the Year’ award,  I still can’t see past Kris Commons.

The former Scottish internationalist leads the way in the goalscoring charts with twenty-three league strikes in twenty-eight appearances. An even better achievement considering the fact that Commons is an attacking midfielder and not an out and out striker. Two seasons ago the Celtic man was down on his luck and in and out the Celtic first team, he finished that campaign with only one league goal. But Kris got his head down, worked his socks off and has now become a focal point for the ‘Hoops’.

His goals are a credit to him and his ability to score in the big games is another huge bonus for Neil Lennon’s side. The former Derby star also has seven assists to his name. The player also has a fantastic disciplinary record, receiving only one yellow card all year.

Commons decided to retire from international football last summer and after this superb season that decision seems to be vindicated. Although Gordon Strachan must look on and think he could do with someone like Commons in his squad.

For his Celtic teammates their time will come and they could be rewarded with huge pay rises this summer. For Boyd, yes he has returned to his great goalscoring ways but his overall game still isn’t good enough to win this individual prize.

At thirty years of age Kris Commons is reaching his peak and keeps on improving. To give him this award shows that determination and resilience pays off. Plus his stats show that he has had a magnificent season!

Posted on April 18th, 2014 by scott
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