Player of the year? Not for the first time

If watching Chelsea stroll to a second Premier league title in as many years wasn’t bad enough, am I now going to be forced to listen to claims by Manchester United ‘supporters’, that victory for the world’s most loathed club in this years Premier league title race, is going to be a victory for the underdog? Am I seriously supposed to believe this will be some kind of triumph for the knights of Old Trafford over the irrepressible forces of darkness from Stamford Bridge?

Almost as hard to take is claims form certain areas of the media and from that most horrid of creatures, the United ‘fan’, that the manager has discovered a new, unsung hero from nowhere; a small but powerful midfield general; a player with the guile and skill of Zidane, combined with the tackle and determination of Roy Keane. And so for the name of this unknown diamond in the rough; ladies and gentlemen, I give you Paul Scholes, an underrated and little known ginger fella with an eye for goal, rest assured, this lad has a big future in front of him.

Now is it just me, or has Paul Scholes played a bit before? Didn’t he have a few good games in a white shirt with three lions on it, eventually proving himself to be one of the finest goal scoring midfielders of his generation? I seem to remember he didn’t too badly in a season when the new underdogs of the modern era won the treble at the brink of the last centaury either.

There is little doubt that regardless of the resting place of this year’s Premier league crown, Scholes will still collect the PFA award for player of the season and deservedly so. But lets not be fooled, we’ve all seen it before; the one touch pass, the driving runs, the rifled shot, the clumsy tackle and who could forget that Beckham, Scholes corner routine? I for one would love a second chance to watch all of this again with Scholes in an England shirt once more.

Unquestionably the little ginger one is having a good season, but aside from one season when he was pushed from pillar to post by both his club and national manager, when has he not? Despite the removal of many a high class professionals from Old Trafford, not once has Scholes threatened to be amongst those casualties. Even now toward the twilight of his career, he is still United’s biggest asset, even above Rooney and Ronaldo.

If the title does indeed find its way back to Old Trafford, as painful on the eye as that is, maybe, just maybe it might be better than the alternative. The special one lording himself over the national game for a third successive season, pretending he has actually managed to achieve something of significance, rather than barely accomplishing the minimum, is even harder to take than the gloatings of the Essex branch of the United supporters club.