Bitter and Blue end of season awards.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the inaugral Bitter and Blue end of season awards. Without further ado, we move onto the first category...

Bitter and Blue player of the season:

As I've mentioned previously, this was a very tight call with what came down to three contenders - David James, Richard Dunne and Sylvain Distin who turned in the most consistent performances throughout the season. Personally, I thought Dunne had a mid-season blip which ruled him out of contention and I just felt that Distin had turned in more high-level performances than James over the course of the season.

Winner: David James.


Bitter and Blue readers player of the season:

Thanks to all who took the time to comment and email on this one.
Throughout the time I had the vote posted up the lead changed a couple of times. Darius Vassell got off to a storming start but fell away towards the end (parallels with his season anyone?) and James, Distin and Dunne were all in running.
In the end though we had a tie.

Winner(s): Richard Dunne and David James.


Breakthrough player of the season:

No contest with this one. I was impressed last season with the way Nedum Onouha forced his way into the team and looked very much at home but that was nothing compared to Micah Richards impact. I first saw him in one of the early youth team Cup games and he looked a dominant player. However, the way he imposed himself with the first team - playing in three different positions as well was astounding.

Winner: Micah Richards.


Overachiever of the season:

This was a bit of a difficult one as I wouldn't say the winner had altogether overachieved as he has been a consistent performer at the top level, but there was a lot of scepticism when he arrived in the summer and I'm sure there were fans who were hoping that he would fail. He quickly settled in though and linked up well with Darius Vassell, also adding goals himself in the process. Hit by injuries late in the season, on reflection this definitely hurt the team and had he been fit would have helped Samaras and Vassell turn in more consistent performances.

Winner: Andrew Cole.


Underachiever of the season:

You may think this one to be abit of a surprise as you may not have expected him to actually turn in decent performances throughout the season, but he did a lot of talking over the summer how he was going to win his place in the team back. In all reality with a full-strength line-up he is now realistically third or even fourth choice and it shows how far he has fallen given that he was an ever present during the last World Cup.

Winner: Danny Mills.


Performance of the season:

It certainly wasn't going to be any from the latter part of the season was it? I thought the Charlton (away) and Newcastle (home) performances were definitely up there and in with a shout but realistically there was only going to be one winner for this award.

Winner: United (home 3-1).


Goal of the season:

I narrowed this down to three goals, and they are very much contrasting ones. One being a genuine 'goal of the season' contender and the other two more because of the enjoyment/celebration factor. Sorry Robbie and Micah, but you're missing out on this one as I decided to go for a real run and finish effort.

Winner: Danny Mills (versus Everton)


Incident of the season:

There was one incident which although it settled down towards the end of the season is still ongoing and looks set to dominate much of the off-season news. It came out of the blue and in truth divided the fans at the time with some in support but most against what happened. As time has gone on since January and his performances have not been anywhere near earlier in the season and have made his demands at the time look a little fanciful.

Winner: The Joey Barton transfer request.


Well, that draws a close to the 2005/06 season. Feel free to post any comments or awards of your own in response.

I'll still be posting up anything City related over the next couple of months between now and pre-season but as it's World Cup year I'll also be on international duty contributing some articles over at Fox Sports and regularly to the podcasts being put by the guys at Soccer Shout.