Did Gareth Bale deserve to scoop a double at the PFA awards?

Tottenham star Gareth Bale scopped both the PFA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year

Tottenham star Gareth Bale scooped both PFA Player of the Year and PFA Young Player of the Year at last night’s award ceremony.

Bale is the first player since Cristiano Ronaldo to claim the double honour and only third in history to claim both awards.

Outstanding

Gareth Bale is an outstanding player and has been one of the standouts performers this season.

His 19 goals in the Premier League from midfield have kept Tottenham in contention for a place in the Champions League next season.

The 23 year-olds talent is not in question. However, has he really done enough to win both awards? I am not so sure to be honest.

Half

I cannot help thinking that Bale did not enjoy a good enough first half of the season to win Player of the Year. Players do enjoy highs and lows in form though. If the award was judged on the last few months of the season, I do not think there would be much of an argument.

Candidates

All the players nominated for the main award were worthy contenders. Luis Suarez and Robin van Persie got second and third in the voting. Chelsea duo Juan Mata and Eden Hazard along with United midfielder Michael Carrick completed the list of nominees.

Example

Without a doubt, Liverpool striker Luis Suarez is one of the best players in the English top flight. His ability is beyond reproach; his mental state however has cost him dearly. The vote for the Player of the Year took place before the Uruguayans controversial biting of Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic.

Suarez personality and silly behaviour has cost him this award. The media are critical of the striker, but he does not do himself any favours. If only he could learn to control his behaviour, he really could be a Premier League legend.

Unfortunately, he does not set a very good example to other professionals, or youngsters watching him play the beautiful game. Even PFA boss Gordon Taylor has stated that Bale and Robin Van Persie are good role models and that he wishes Suarez would ‘fall in line’, meaning improve his behaviour on the pitch.

Choice

Bale would have been second choice on my list. For me you cannot look further than last year’s winner Robin van Persie for the honour this time around. The Dutchman has been fantastic this season.

Not only has he scored 25 goals in the top flight this season, he also has 13 assists to his name. Van Persie has been the difference between United claiming the title and not. The former-Arsenal striker recently went through a goalless streak, but was still creating goals for his teammates in that period.

I am sure that Van Persie will not be worrying about the award too much though, after claiming his first ever league title with Manchester United this season.

Young

It may be time for the PFA to re-consider the age range of the players nominated for the Young Player of the Year. The age limit is currently 24 years of age, which to me is too old.

The youngster that has impressed me the most in the Premier League this season has been Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke. The 22-year-old has scored 19 top-flight goals in a struggling Villa team, not bad for his first season in the Premier League.

In fact, his goals are the biggest reason that the Villans are still in with a chance of surviving the drop to the Championship. Without his goals this season the Midlanders would be in major trouble this season.

The young Belgium international is now attracting interest from bigger clubs and Villa could lose the striker in the summer, whether they survive the drop or not.

Exciting

This year’s award is the second time that Bale has claimed the honour, after winning the award in 2011. It is unlikely that the award will be the last that Bale wins in his career. The Welshman has an exciting future ahead of him in the game.

Whether his long-term future lies at Spurs is unclear, but one thing is for sure if Spurs were prepared to sell the Wales international there would be a queue of top clubs lining up to sign him.

Did Gareth Bale deserve to scoop a double at the PFA awards?