Michael Stewart was surprised after what he learned about Rangers and Celtic as the nominations are out for the player of the year.
PFA Scotland released their nominations for the Premiership player of the year award, with no Old Firm players making it.
Hearts attackers Claudio Braga and Lawrence Shankland, and Motherwell’s forward duo of Elijah Just and Tawanda Maswanhise are the four candidates on the shortlist.
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Michael Stewart learns that Rangers and Celtic have not had nominations just once before
Stewart learned that since the awards began, back in the 1977/78 season and not 1972 as he claims, there has only been one season in which there was no Rangers or Celtic player nominated for it.
He is accurate with that, as it happened back in the 2012/13 season.
This is a surprise as the league has been historically dominated by the two Old Firm sides for the past few decades.
There has also been no new winner of the Scottish Premiership since the 1984/85 season, when Sir Alex Ferguson won it with Aberdeen.
“The award started in 1972, I think, and it’s only happened once before; there hasn’t been a Rangers or Celtic player in it. It shows you just how unusual it is.”
The nominees when it last happened were: Michael Higdon (Motherwell), Leigh Griffiths (Hibs), Niall McGinn (Aberdeen) and Andrew Shinnie (Inverness).
Higdon ended up winning the award on that occasion.
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Did any Rangers player deserve to make the cut?
Rangers News asked fans to vote for their Gers player of the year, and that vote was won by Mikey Moore.
However, the club did not give the award to the 18-year-old, but instead decided to go with Emmanuel Fernandez, who got the second most votes by the readers.
If any of the two players from Rangers were to make it, it would be either Moore or Fernandez.
That being said, neither of them has been consistent right from the start of the season until the end, as they needed time to adapt.
They were both in and out of the team and did not have the same kind of impact as the Hearts and Motherwell players did.
This should be an eye-opener that better players need to be signed in the summer if the Gers are serious about winning the league.
