Player of the Season

[unclefabio]

The good news is that, unlike last year, some of our players have done well this season!

A quick summary of the main candidates:

Benteke - The best striker Villa have had in recent memory. 13 league goals in 27 games (more than double the amount of our second top scorer) and all of them were important goals. A beast in the air, an excellent finisher and our most exciting player by a distance. If you were feeling adventurous, you might even say that he's a bit of an upgrade from Emile Heskey. There is a good chance that we'd be bottom of the league without him. He gets my vote.

Guzan - Possibly the most underrated player in the league. A consistent performer; he makes very few mistakes and has pulled off outstanding saves in practically every game this season. He's also much better at commanding the defence than Given is. Much like Benteke, you could argue that we'd already be relegated without him.

Westwood - Integral to the style of play which Lambert is trying to implement. He always wants the ball and very rarely loses possession. He's also capable of making a defence-splitting pass. After the last several seasons, it is nice to have a midfielder who doesn't constantly give the ball away.

Weimann - Scored some very important goals. Has probably been a bit too inconsistent to win the main award ahead of Benteke or Guzan, but I'd certainly vote for him as young player of the season. Hopefully he signs a new contract soon.

[*shellac*]

I voted for the Belgian bloke.ﹰ

[Toronto Villa]

As superb as Guzan has been he is still a component of one of the worst Villa defences of all time. He's kept us in games and like today won us some. But Benteke has been astonishing. Without his goals we'd be utterly done, and he has given us, in what has been at times a thoroughly miserable experince this season so much to cling on to and root for. We've needed a new hero and Benteke is it. A brilliant signing he's made Weimann, Zog and Gabby better and in his first season against PL defenders an outstanding first season closing in on 20 goals.

[treeve1]

Benteke for me. Can't remember a signing having such an immediate influence. Probably our best value for money signing in recent history, only Ashley comes close really but it took him a while to become a very good player of significant value, Benteke is there already. It will be a massive shame if he goes, but at least we will get a fortune for him. Weimann is the most significant youth team find though. 10 goals playing all over the place in a struggling side is brilliant for his breakthrough season and he's a proper finisher. Takes all the pressure off gabby when we have those two. Curtains for Bent I think.

[Irish villain]

I might wait until we are definitely safe to vote.

That said, it does kind of reinforce what I tried to say in the '26 passes' thread. This season has shown a lot of promise and despite finding ourselves deep in the doo doo we should remember that we had absolutely nothing to be positive about this time last year as the life was sucked out of the club.

This year we have seen lots of positives and enough hope (if we can stay up), that next season will see us climb again.

[Chipsticks]

I imagine that Benteke will win player of the season, but Guzan will win the terrace award. Or vice-versa.

[TonyD]

Both Brad and the Beast are  joint winners - so far.  Gabby will be up there come May.

[paul_e]

Benteke will win this by a long way, he's the best player we've had at the club for years.

I do want to see Weimann get the plaudits he deserves though, he's been superb this year and is the perfect foil for Benteke.

[ozzjim]

I think it shows how good an eye Lambert does have for a player. Benteke has been incredible though, and for all Bent did the season he came in and saved us, over a full season he is the best forward we have had since Yorke. Must be worth 30 million too us now.

[cdbearsfan]

Ask me in May.

[eamonn]

Senior: Benteke
Young: Weimann
Clubman: Guzan

[Nelly]

Guzan for me.

[Ger Regan]

I'm genuinely shocked at the current results. Without Benteke, we would be down already. I really don't think you can say the same about Guzan, however consistent he's been this year.

[KRS]

If it wasnt for Guzan, our shockingly bad goal difference would be even worse; if it wasnt for Benteke, we wouldnt have scored as many goals. In any other season Benteke would have won this by a clear margin, but in a season where our defence has been embarrassingly bad, its fair to say that Guzans saves have kept us in games which we should have been dead and buried. In those games where Benteke has contributed by scoring or setting up the winning or equalising goal, its also fair to say that Guzan would have made 3 or 4 match saving saves.

Without Benteke, we would be down already. I really don't think you can say the same about Guzan, however consistent he's been this year.

You can actually say that about Guzan though and he's also been more consistent than Benteke. He has been a revelation this season, and given that he's still learning his trade, if we can keep hold of him then Benteke will have many Player of the Season awards ahead of him...but this year, its got to Brad.

[Ger Regan]

This is all too subjective. Guzan has had mediocre games this season, as, I'll readily admit, has benteke. I just find it difficult to look past someone who has been responsible for an obscene proportion of all our goals.

The other thing to ask is, barring the odd game, how many saves did guzan make that you wouldn't expect a premiership-standard keeper to make? And i like brad, btw, he's undoubtedly had great games for us.