Who is Legends' North-East Player and Young Player of the Year?

MALCOLM MACDONALD:

Player of Year

“It’s a close one between Kevin Nolan and Darren Bent, but I’d have to go for Nolan.

“It’s quite amazing what Nolan has done. At the beginning of the season, when Newcastle weren’t playing that well, Nolan’s goals were basically carrying them. He alone was responsible for keeping the club close to the top of the table.

“The thing I like most about Nolan is his movement. Whenever the ball is moving rapidly into the box, Kevin Nolan is moving rapidly to meet it.

“If you watch a lot of strikers nowadays, they’re standing still as the ball comes into the box. That makes them easier to mark.

“Nolan has always been good at timing his runs, right back to his days with Bolton, and Newcastle have benefited from that.”

Young Player of Year:

“I’m going to say Andy Carroll, purely because of his goals. He’s scored a lot of important goals recently, but I choose him with a certain amount of hesitation because he’s still got an awful lot of work to do.

“He’s still some way short of being a top-class Premier League striker, but hopefully he’ll get there next season.

“Having said that though, I’m not totally sure Newcastle’s promotion has come at the right time for him. It might well be a year too early because I don’t think another season in the Championship would do Carroll any harm.”

BERNIE SLAVEN:

Player of Year

“I don’t think any Middlesbrough players deserve to be in the running, so as a neutral, it’s between Kevin Nolan and Darren Bent.

“Bent has been brilliant, it’s a massive achievement to score 25 goals in what is basically a pretty average team.

“But you expect your leading strikers to score.

What you don’t expect is for one of your midfielders to score 18 goals, so for that reason I’m going to go for Nolan.

“At Boro, we have Gary O’Neil, who most people think is a half-decent midfielder, and he’s scored four goals. So for Nolan to have 18 is sensational.”

Young Player of Year:

“There can only be one winner in this category, Adam Johnson. I know he only played here for half a season, but if there’s a better young player to have come out of the North-East this year, I’d like to see him.

“He scored 11 goals for Boro before he left and did brilliantly. He’s got all the attributes you’re looking for in a wide player, and when he left that was basically the end of Boro’s hopes of getting back to the Premier League.”

MICKY HORSWILL:

Player of Year

“One player has been head and shoulders above all the others – Darren Bent.

“His goals have carried Sunderland into tenth position in the table and he’s been a massive success.

“I know we paid a lot of money to get him, but even with a big price tag, you still have to go out and do the business, and Bent has certainly done that.

“I just hope he’s on that plane to the World Cup finals because he deserves it.

“You can talk all you want about Heskey, Defoe or Crouch, but apart from Rooney, Bent would be the first name on my list. I don’t see what else he could have done this season.”

Young Player of Year

“We’ve got a bunch of decent kids coming through at Sunderland at the moment, and that should stand us in good stead for the future.

“Young Fraizer Campbell has had a really strong end to the season, but I think Jordan Henderson has been absolutely fantastic for an 18-year-old and I’d give the award to him.

“He’s filled in well on the right and in central midfield, and his presence was vital when we were getting a lot of injuries earlier in the season.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how he develops in the future.

“Neither Newcastle nor Boro have any particularly exciting young players, so I think Henderson is the winner by quite a distance.”

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