Rangers boss ‘deserved’ individual awards, despite ‘sensational’ Saints
St Johnstone’s double cup success reignited the debate over the Manager of the Year awards, with suggestions that Saints boss Callum Davidson should have won rather than Rangers manager Steven Gerrard after leading the Gers to their first league title in a decade – but Sir Kenny Dalglish insists th...
St Johnstone’s double cup success reignited the debate over the Manager of the Year awards, with suggestions that Saints boss Callum Davidson should have won rather than Rangers manager Steven Gerrard after leading the Gers to their first league title in a decade – but Sir Kenny Dalglish insists the right man won, even if it was “not fair” for Davidson to end up empty-handed.
Gerrard was honoured by the SPFL, Scottish Football Writers’ Association and PFA Scotland for the Light Blues’ tremendous title triumph that saw them smash a host of records on the way to a 25-point lead over their closest rivals.
Dalglish hailed the cup double won by St. Johnstone as “absolutely sensational” but remains adamant that Gerrard “deserves every one” of the three awards he won for Rangers’ dominance of the Premiership.
“When Callum Davidson got his hands on the Scottish Cup, the debate over whether or not he should be regarded as the Manager of the Year was reignited,” Dalglish wrote in his Sunday Post column.
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“To see St Johnstone win both domestic cup competitions this season has been one of the fairytale stories in our game, from any given season.
“It has been absolutely sensational.
“Before Callum sampled more silverware last weekend, Steven Gerrard had already made a clean sweep of the Manager of the Year awards, picking up the accolade from the Scottish Football Writers’ Association, the SPFL and PFA Scotland.
“Some have said that if the voting had been held back until after the Scottish Cup Final, we might have got a different outcome.
“Not for me. I still think those were the right calls, and Steven deserves every one of his awards.
“Still, it’s actually not fair that Callum shouldn’t be recognised.”
A ‘special merit’ award for Davidson?
While Davidson didn’t win any of the individual honours, it’s incredibly difficult to argue that either he or Gerrard didn’t deserve to win the awards.
The complaints about the awards being dished out before the season ends are a bit disingenuous anyway with the reasons for that more being down to publicity than anything else.
Dalglish also suggested in his column that there could be a possibility to create a ‘special merit’ award to recognise Davidson’s season but the Perth boss will likely be happy enough with the Scottish Cup and the League Cup in the trophy room.
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