Young & Gabby To Follow Gary Shaw?

Both Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor have been nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year awards.

Also in the hat are last years winner, Manchester United midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo, Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas, Liverpool striker Fernando Torres and Manchester City defender Micah Richards.

PFA Chief Executive Gordon Taylor said on their official site:

On Gabby: ‘He is such a direct player with pace to burn and, whilst he can lead the line, he will gallop onto through balls all day long. He has made great progress and, for the sake of club and country, we hope he continues to develop.’ and Ashley Young: ‘Like Gabby Agbonlahor, Ashley is benefiting from working under such a good manager in Martin O’Neill whose decision to splash out £10million might have been viewed as a gamble at the time. In fact, it was a very shrewd piece of business.’

Martin O’Neill said on the official site: ‘I’m delighted for the pair of them. I think they’ve deserved it. They’ve both been excellent this season and consistency has been important. Now I know that as our performances dropped off before the Bolton win everybody started to draw big conclusions from that. But the fact is that both of them have been brilliant for us all year.’

The last Villa player to win that accolade was Gary Shaw for the 1980/81 season.