The annual PFA Awards are a prestigious part of the English football season but, let’s be honest, they get plenty wrong. Voted for by players from the 92 clubs in the football league and 8 additional stand-alone clubs in the Women’s Premier League, it’s a great bit of recognition from fellow footballers to find yourself in the team of the year, no doubt. Except that anyone who says these things are voted for by the players’ ‘peers’ is kidding themselves. The striker for Hartlepool United has as much in common with Eden Hazard as some schoolkid skipping fifth period maths has with Ned Kelly or Billy the Kid. No offence to Scott Fenwick.

What I’m saying is, these awards are mostly voted for by fans. 80% of voters come from outside the Premier League, they may not be the types you’d see at the pub in retro kit and scarf but they’re still guys whose opinions on the candidates is built from watching them on telly, listening to talkback radio and reading such fine publications as this one (hopefully). So let’s do this properly.

Team of the Year

GK – David De Gea (Manchester United)

RB – Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea)

CB – John Terry (Chelsea)

CB – Jose Fonte (Southampton)

LB – Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea)

RM – Eden Hazard (Chelsea)

CM – Nemaja Matic (Chelsea)

CM – Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea)

LM – Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal)

FW – Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)

FW – Harry Kane (Tottenham)

I’ve gone with a loose 4-4-2 formation, but that’s just for the sake of it. Jose Mourinho had a moan at the lack of Cescy in the PFA’s team, saying that team would get rolled for its lack of balance in midfield. Sorry Jose, that’s dumb. Nobody’s pretending that this team is actually gonna take the field, it’s just a way to honour some deserving individuals.

Any Team of the Year is gonna be stacked with Chelsea players. I’ve got six of them. The fullbacks are far and away the best pair in the league, and each get in here on individual merit too. But it doesn’t seem right to put an entirely blue back four in there, since so much of their defensive success is institutional. Like, they look better for the system they play in (and the midfield/keeper that encloses them). Chelsea set up in a way that maximises how they plan to defend, often sitting deep and allowing their opponents to push the ball. They make fewer interceptions than any other team and it ain’t close. But they also concede the second fewest fouls and, of course, one of the tightest defence in recent seasons as far as goals conceded goes. The only team rivalling them on that last point is Southampton, who have been equally stingy at the back. So the central defence is split between the leaders of each, John Terry and Jose Fonte. Terry seemed like he was falling out of the picture until Mourinho returned to revitalise his career, and he’s been brilliant all season. A complete and utter prick but undeniably good. While Fonte’s done wonders at keeping the Saints foundation despite all of their transfer business. It’s actually amazing how well they’ve done despite all the change, and it’s fair to say Liverpool fluffed on the wrong Saints centre-back. Fonte’s been great and he’s been ever-present too.

David De Gea is a given. Goalkeepers are always getting excluded so seeing him on the shortlist for PFA Player of the Year is a huge indication of how immense he’s been. The improvements in his game since he first came to England have been enormous. Long gone are his exploitable weaknesses under the high ball and he’s now the best shot-stopping keeper on the planet. When United were struggling with injuries at the back for the first half of the season, he was there single-handedly saving them points.

The three other Chelsea players are absolute sitters. Fabregas not making the PFA team is ridiculous. Three goals and 16 assists, he’s made more passes than any other player in the EPL. He’s the metronome that guides the rest of the Chelsea team. If he’s flying under the radar then he’s doing his job right. Nemanja Matic is the opposite. He’s completely imposing and ruthless, you always know when he’s around. He’s also a top passer, plus is probably the best tackling midfielder in England too.

Eden Hazard’s in too. Any debate there?

Likewise Alexis Sanchez. He’s provided Arsenal’s always flowing midfield with a real power punch with his tendency to take a pop given half a chance. He glides past defenders better than anyone not named ‘Hazard’ (those two are first and second in successful dribbles – Haz with a huge lead, granted) and with 14 goals and 8 assists to his name so far, he’s taken no time to adapt to the Premier League, no small matter at all. Great campaign from him.

And to the strikers. Yes, I’ve left off Diego Costa. Another guy who’s made an immediate acclimatisation, if only he’d played a little more then he’d have this in the bag. But there are two men with more goals than him, two men who have carried their team on their backs at times, something Costa has never had to do. Eden Hazard’s been the guy to step up with a crucial winner more often than not – Hazard’s last six goals have all come in either draws of single-goal wins. Costa’s had a few winners (like that one at Anfield), but it isn’t enough to hold off Kun Aguero or Harry Hotspur. 21 goals in 29 games for Aguero, and that’s not even counting his Champions League heroics either. As Yaya Toure twiddles his thumbs, Vincent Kompany nurses his latest war wound and Manny Pellegrini looks through the wanted ads, it’s been Aguero who’s kept City alive. Injury curtailed him right at the peak of his season but he’s finishing strong, with 4 in his last 3. Damn, and what to say of Harry Kane? From obscurity to magnificence in less than a season. His hat-trick against Chelsea might have been the individual performance of the season. Spurs fans have hope and his name is Harry.

Team of the Year Reserves

GK – Thibault Courtois (Chelsea)

RB – Nathaniel Clyne (Southampton)

CB – Gary Cahill (Chelsea)

CB – Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal)

LB – Ryan Bertrand (Southampton)

RM – David Silva (Manchester City)

CM – Santi Cazorla (Arsenal)

CM – Marouane Fellaini (Manchester United)

LM – Christian Eriksen (Tottenham)

FW – Diego Costa (Chelsea)

FW – Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)

And here come the rest of the Chelsea defence, Courtois and Cahill. Likewise two more Southampton players in Clyne and Bertrand. Bertrand actually started the season on loan from Chelsea but joined the Saints permanently in January, one of the better bits of business they’d done in a season full of them. Both Clyne and Bertrand have worked their way into the England squad, the trick for Southampton now is keeping them.

Koscielny is far and away Arsenal’s best defender and it’s no coincidence that they’ve kept 10 clean sheets in the league with him and only 2 without. His teammate Santi Cazorla is here too, having been the most consistent and threatening of the Gunners’ midfield corps all season, though I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t find room for Mesut Ozil in any of these teams. Ozil came with big expectations and was written off so rapidly and harshly that he’s now a really underrated player. Outstanding during Arsenal’s late winning streak too.

David Silva is always brilliant for City, I’ll hear no arguments. I’m also a big fan of Christian Eriksen and his 10 goals for Spurs from midfield. Another inside forward type of winger, he works his socks off every week and has a tendency to appear in the crucial spot for a crucial goal.

And a couple of United players. Rooney’s spent time being an impressive midfielder but he dines here at the table where his bread is usually buttered. Supposing he likes butter on his toast, that is. Going out on a limb… I’m gonna say he does. It’s a credit to Rooney that he can basically play anywhere in midfield or up front. The guy’s an English talisman and the sooner people realise that the better. I think it’s coming.

Mary Fellaini is probably gonna be a controversial selection, yet it was he who turned United’s season around. Louis Van Gaal gets enormous credit for finding an outlet that makes best use of Fellaini’s specific talents, creating the new midfield target man idea, and Fellaini gets credit for making use of the opportunity. It ain’t necessarily pretty, but who else can bring a ball down on the chest like he can? And on top of that, he rarely gives the ball away, he gets right forward and he’s shown a great ability to finish emphatically. He had a few teammates vying for his spot here, such as Ander Herrera, Juan Mata and Michael Carrick, but the first two only came on at the back end of the season while Carrick simply hasn’t been on the field enough – otherwise he’d be threatening the first team.

Team of the Year Reserves Reserves

GK – Hugo Lloris (Tottenham)

RB – Seamus Coleman (Everton)

CB – Toby Alderweireld (Southampton)

CB – Phil Jones (Manchester United)

LB – Aaron Cresswell (West Ham)

RM – Stewart Downing (West Ham)

CM – Morgan Schneiderlin (Southampton)

CM – Jordan Henderson (Liverpool)

LM – Raheem Sterling (Liverpool)

FW – Charlie Austin (Queens Park Rangers)

FW – Olivier Giroud (Arsenal)

WHERE’S COUTINHO!? I’ll tell ya where he bloody is. Nowhere near this team, that’s for damn sure. Anonymous for half a season, the same number of assists and goals as Falcao… you don’t make the team of the year on the back of a couple nice goals in February, not even the third string team of the year. The fact he got nominated for Player of the Year ahead of the likes of Fabregas, Terry, Aguero or Matic is an abomination. Too many Liverpool fans in the lower leagues or something.

The fact is, in almost every game I’ve seen them play in, Raheem Sterling has looked far more dangerous. Bubba Sterling’s a rubbish finisher and he’s had some enormously overblown off-field stuff (and the contract situation didn’t help) but even though he takes fewer shots per game he still scores more goals than the Brazilian. Plus more key passes, just as many good dribbles and he draws more fouls. He’s been better, plain and simple. Coutinho’s a lot like Eden Hazard was a couple seasons back. He’s got all the skill in the world, but he tends not to have a lot of end product to it. Not yet anyway. Coutinho has the potential to score 15 goals a season and that potential probably clouds what he’s actually doing right now. He did fine this, he just wasn’t one of the top 3-6 players in his position.

Jordan Henderson was. As Stevie G succumbed to age and irrelevance, Hendo stepped up. And you can expect him to keep making improvements into next season as he assumes the full leadership of the side.

A couple Frenchmen, Schneiderlin and Giroud, would have been threatening for higher teams had they played more often. Schneiders especially, he’s comfortably the best midfielder in the Premier League outside the traditional top five teams. No midfielder who played as often as he did had a better passing success rate, and he averages more tackles and interceptions per game than Matic does. You can see why Wenger wanted him so badly, though at least he found a fella in a similar mould with Francis Coquelin (who didn’t play enough to warrant consideration, and he’d probably need to work on his distribution too). Giroud has chipped in with 14 goals in 17 starts (and 5 off the bench), a better rate per game than all but Costa/Aguero/Kane.

Charlie Austin’s another guy who has had no trouble finding the net. They’re pretty much going down anyway, but without his goals they’d have tumbled long ago. He gets the final striker spot ahead of the likes of Graziano Pelle (too inconsistent), Christian Benteke (took too long to get going), Danny Ings (disappeared when they needed him most) and Wilfried Bony (transfer to City took it out of him).

Hugo Lloris is the keeper, he’s done a wonderful job behind that Spurs defence. No simple task. Joe Hart ran him extremely close.

Aaron Cresswell and Seamus Coleman are a pair of fullbacks who you’ll certainly be reading transfer rumours about once the season ends. Cresswell turned up at Upton from Ipswich and had a great first year in the big time, defending capably, getting forward with confidence and even chipping in a goal or two. Coleman a similar story, he built on an impressive season for Everton last time with plenty more of the same, it was only his team’s troubles that robbed him of the spotlight. Shout out to Cresswell's Hammers teammate Stewart Downing too, he went form utterly abysmal to really effective in one season.

I had trouble filling out the last couple spots, the two centre backs. Martin Skrtel was an option, as was Phil Jagielka. Ultimately I went with Toby Alderweireld to give Southampton’s defence the full contingent (Toby also filled in capably in midfield a few times) and Phil Jones. Jones gets made fun of a bit for his game faces and his roughness but when he was fit and playing there were few more effective defenders. He’s superb in one on ones, and quite skilful, if a little awkward, on the ball. If he can stay fit next time then he’ll be right up there with the best of ‘em. As it is he did just enough for third team defence.

Further apologies to Alex Song, Mile Jedinak, Fabian Delph, Ryan Shawcross, Gylfi Sigurdsson, James Milner, Saido Berahino, Leighton Baines, Pablo Zabaleta, Esteban Cambiasso, Ryan Mason, Kieran Trippier, Bojan Krkic, Victor Wanyama and Joleon Lescott. Can’t pick ‘em all.