Adam Virgo
BRIGHTON LEGEND AND TV PUNDIT
THERE’S usually a standout candidate for Championship Player of the Year.
A striker with 30 goals or the best player for a runaway champion.
This season? I’m sitting here with a list of about 14 names and you could probably pick any one of them. It’s the most open race I’ve ever known.
Leicester are a fantastic team but no individual really stands out. Maybe Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall at a push.
At Leeds, Georginio Rutter has lots of assists but not many goals.
Crysencio Summerville blows hot and cold.
Sammie Szmodics is the division’s top scorer but I don’t know… it just doesn’t feel like the Blackburn man will get many votes.
He reminds me of Miroslav Klose, who scored goal after goal at World Cups but never got half the appreciation of other players.
For my money, Ipswich left-back Leif Davis would be well worth a nomination.
The 24-year-old is one assist away from breaking Kieran Trippier’s Championship record of 14 assists by a defender - but we all know defensive players never win these prizes.
In the end, I’ve just gone with the players I most enjoy watching and top of that list is Sunderland’s 15-goal winger Jack Clarke.
People will look at it and see somebody languishing in mid-table. But I just think he’s a quality player.
Before getting injured in February, he was at a level of performance where everybody thought he belonged in the Premier League.
Goalscoring midfielders are the hardest things to find in football. Lots of teams have good strikers. Plenty have defenders who can chip in with four or five from set-plays.
Very few have midfielders who produce double figures year on year, and that’s what Clarke does.
Matured
What’s impressed me most this season is how much he’s matured. He takes a lot more responsibility. He makes better decisions. He produces more regularly.
You just need to look at the way Sunderland’s results have collapsed since he got injured to see how influential the 23-year-old is to that team.
Will he be at the Stadium of Light next year? Almost ly not, and that’s about certain- the biggest compliment you can pay him.
Like Clarke, Morgan Whittaker, right,, doesn’t p
