On Monday the final ‘PFA Player of’ shortlist was announced, and this time around it isn’t a monthly prize, the gong on offer is the overall Player of the Year for the Championship season of 2017/18.
🏴 @robsnodgrass7 has been nominated for the PFA @BristolStMotors Fans' Player of the Year! #AVFC
Vote here 👉 https://t.co/Qc0ngQXGkK pic.twitter.com/HQNB1exaF3
— Professional Footballers’ Association (@PFA) May 21, 2018
Having known manager Steve Bruce well from their time at Hull City and with Snoddy’s move to West Ham United being less than successful with some really amateurish social media shenanigans from some, we rescued him from his London Stadium nightmare and brought him in on loan at the end of August.
It’s fair to say he took a little bit of time to win fans around but the 30-year-olds’ attitude and desire on the pitch soon saw Villans take him to their hearts, and his 40 starting appearances (two showings from the bench) have seen him more than play his part in our Play-Off push back to the Premier League by Wembley’s hallowed turf this week.
With seven Championship goals to his name helping us to 18 points, his crowning achievement this year were the 14 Championship assists he provided, and he finds himself on the shortlist in recognition of that as Snoddy created more goals than anyone else in the division this year.
He finds himself battling with Derby County’s Curtis Davies, Wolves’ Jota, Norwich’s James Maddison, Cardiff’s Sean Morrison and Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon.
A number of other Villa players can feel unlucky not to have been up for this prize, as Mile Jedinak, Jack Grealish, Albert Adomah, James Chester and even Alan Hutton come instantly to my mind for their efforts.
Suffice to say though, fans are on board with this selection and the vote ends tomorrow at 8am. Let’s see if we can send him out on a high ahead of Wembley success and then fingers crossed we can get him back for next year and whilst there will undoubtedly be changes to the squad if we go up, continuity in the spine of the team will reap its own rewards.
It would also be remiss of me to not comment what a joy it is to have more than one stand out player in a season as that really hasn’t happened for a couple of years.
I have so voted for Snoddy!
— Maninder Grimshaw (@FrankandMin) May 21, 2018
Takes 2 seconds to vote. Do it, do it, do it!
— Rob Henry (@brummieinde65) May 21, 2018
Gets my vote ???? has bought along with others a passion and a spirit that has been missing for a while. For a player who is on loan he has been fantastic. ???? sign for us when we get promoted on Saturday
— Dave Clitheroe (@dave_clitheroe) May 21, 2018
Well done Snoddy!
— Judith Boyle (@JudithBoyle3) May 21, 2018
Quite right too????& also the alternative commentator of the year!…… & the winner is…….. Snodders ????????????????????????
— Mark Guest (@markyholtend) May 21, 2018
Done – vote Snoddy
— Mark Ashmore (@mg_ashmore) May 21, 2018