What is happening with the Player Of The Year Trophy

Back in 1974 the Daily Echo or Southern Evening Echo as it was then called decided to donate a Trophy to the Club for the Player Of The Year to be voted for by the fans, the first recipient was Mick Channon.

Since then it has been an annual presentation of the original trophy and the winners reads like a who's who of British Football. Alan Ball, Kevin keegan, Peter Shilton, David Armstrong, Matt Le Tissier, Alan Shearer, Time Flowers, Dave Beasant, James beattie, Wayne Bridge, Peter Crouch and Steve Williams all having the same thing in common, they played for Saints, they played for England and they won the player of the year trophy, other recipients arent too shoddy either.

In those 36 years its been the trophy for Saints fans to vote for and Saints players to win, its been seen as the crowning moment of the season, the fans talk about it and daresay so do the players.

So why for season 2009/10 do the Club feel the need to break with 36 years of parntership with the Echo and introduce their own version of the award, the one vote and trophy has worked since so why break with tradition as it can only dilute the honour for a player, surely their can only be one player of the season voted for by the fans not two.

This season there probably wont be much of an argument in who wins both but in others there could definately be, there will then be the argument of which award is truly unbiased and represents the complete cross section of the fans, the Club version for example can only be voted for by e mail, whilst the Echo allow you to vote either by e mail, text or phone, thus broadening the opportunity for supporters, especially those who dont have e mail, both club and Echo seem to have abandoned the good old postal ballot.

Whichever way you look at it it cant be good for supporters, the Echo has come in for a lot of stick this season especially with the ban imposed on it, however perhaps this enables us all to reflect the link between Club & Paper and how both have been mutually beneficial, for Saints to just brush the long standing ECho trophy aside and try to consign it to history is wrong and shows a lack of foresight on somebodys part, if this Club is to move forward it needs unity in every area, players, staff, supporters and of course the local media. 

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