Player of the Season

And what a season it was.

One striker and one right winger for most of the season-and that right winger was one most of us would have sold last Summer, our best CB out for months, a squad where we hadn't bought a player to go straight into the first team for 3 windows...?

Absolutely outstanding season...so who comes out top of the pile?

A few standouts for me:

Murphy-with his assists and goals, has any player made more progress than him in our recent history? Ironically, he's one of the positions we need to improve on but there's an awful lot to love about Jacob Murphy. A Cup Final assist, too.

Dan Burn-makes the absolute best of what he's got and never, ever lets us down. And that Wembley goal...

Alexander Isak. Even with his recent shaky form, he has absolutely carried us up front this season. Only striker worthy of the name (after Wilson's apocalyptic drop-off in form)

Lewis Hall-absolute class and is only going to get better.

Personally, I'm torn between Burn and Murphy-they both epitomise the 'team that tries' ethic and turned us into a 'team that wins'.

Thoughts and suggestions?

Of the two - it's Burn for me.

For the season though - Tonali.

He's added class and a winning mentality to our whole team.

Isak, Tonali & Big Dan Burn for player of the season in the Attack, Midfield, Defence.

Honourable mention to Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento for excellent break out seasons.

I genuinely believe has Hall stayed fit we'd have qualified with ease instead of on the final day.

Also credit to Murphy for a fantastic step up in quality and consistency. Sadly the last 2 games soured that as he let himself and the team down.

Perhaps more to do with the formation shift.

Don't think it's a good idea to have Barnes or Gordon and Murphy tripping over each other. Same with Tino on the other side.

It was a tactical mess TBH.

defence - Livramento
midfield - Tonali
forwards - Isak

overall - Tonali for me.. we HAVE to keep him, Bruno and Isak...

Only one player for me
BIG JOE
Without him we struggled

Had a bit of a brain fart there, missing out Tonali. 😁

I don't think we can overestimate just how important qualifying for the Champions League is in terms of keeping our key players.

If we'd gone into the Summer as a Europa Cup team, I'd have spent it worrying about Tonali, Isak, maybe Botman or Bruno having their heads turned. But now, I'm not worried in the slightest.

Isak for me his goals have got us where we are and just behind Isak Tonali a would class season.

The man from Blyth (but plenty others deserve it too).

Many have their hands up but I am going with Isak.

He produced as many assists as Wood and Haaland combined and scored only one fewer non-penalty goal than Salah in nearly 600 fewer minutes. He scored in 18 league matches and we averaged 2.44 points per game (14 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses) when he scored and 1.4 when he didn't. Oh, and an important goal in the cup final.

This with a big drop off in form due to injury at season end.

A lot of other good performances from the entire midfield, Murph, Schar, BDB and fullbacks. Can you name a Toon player who played more minutes than BDB this season?

Dan Burn: 3,074 minutes
Bruno Guimar?es: 3,006 minutes
Lewis Hall: 2,661 minutes
Fabian Schar: 2,748 minutes
Anthony Gordon: 2,624 minutes
Alexander Isak: 2,613 minutes
Joelinton: 2,580 minutes
Tino Livramento: 2,559 minutes
Sandro Tonali: 2,409 minutes
Nick Pope: 1,980 minutes
Jacob Murphy: 2,092 minutes