Today we look at the player of the year as voted for by the supporters, Jose Fonte who made his 6th season with the club his best.
There can be no doubt that Jose Fonte deserved his player of the year accolade, playing a full part in the Saints defence coming within one goal of equalling Chelsea as the tightest defence in the league.
There is no doubt that would have happened if Fraser Forster had not go injured and our defence was never quite the same after losing Forster.
In the latter stages of the campaign I felt that Fonte was not quite the same player as he had been, in the final six games of the season our defence was very prone to error and Jose was no exception, but I don't feel that was totally his fault and overall he can be very satisfied with his season.
I think the factor that won the voting can be summed up in one word, consistency, up to the final five games he had barely put a foot wrong and playing 37 out of the 38 Premier League fixtures he was almost ever present.
This was what made him shine above other contenders, his nearest rivals for player of the year were Ryan Bertrand who was a genuine contender, Toby Alderweireld who would have won it if he had played a few more games and perhaps had been used in only the centre of defence and Dusan Tadic who for the first third of the season was possibly the best player in the Premier, but after the half way mark died down too much possibly because of an injury.
But Jose was there in the middle of things from start to finish and the fans appreciated that.
In many ways Jose reminds me of Claus Lundekvam, he was a central defender who was written off on several occasions for the very reasons I have expressed reservations about Jose in that there is just that tendency to have a couple more lapses in concentration than is really acceptable. But Jose like Claus keeps on keeping on and it is fitting that his best season with the club should be his sixth, it shows his durability and his determination to stay at the top of his game.
No one could have predicted this award back in January 2010 when Jose arrived, at least not in the circumstances ie in our third Premier league season, our success has been built on the back of a settled squad and that is shown in the fact that in our usual starting line up we had two players in Schneiderlin (261) and Fonte(226) who by the end of the season had played over 200 league and cup games for Saints, not to mention Kelvin Davis's 300 and if all goes well next season although no one will top the 200 mark, there could be as many as another 5 joining Nathaniel Clyne and Steven Davis on having played over 100.
Hopefully Jose can keep up his high standards next season, if he can and we have the right man alongside him, then there is no reason why we should not be just as successful if not more so.