Why the writers voted for a safe pair of hands
By Roddy Forsyth
(Filed: 21/04/2006)

What makes a memorable awards ceremony - the Oscars, Grammys, Booker Prize, whatever? Top of the list - theoretically, anyway - probably should be an occasion when the accolade is bestowed on some almost universally acclaimed individual, such as Nelson Mandela, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Even then there was scope for Ricky Gervais to salute the honour with the gag: "Who says prison doesn't work - Mandela's never been back, has he?" In practice, a generous serving of controversy, larded with bitterness, bile and envy, is more to the public taste.

The most contentious Nobel Peace award went to Henry Kissinger, a man whose contribution to global concord included the carpet-bombing of Cambodia which killed between 200,000 and 800,000 people. Kissinger's prize was widely condemned as an outstanding example of the 'Adolf Hitler - firm but fair' school of historical revisionism.

Football bunfights are infinitely more trivial, but they also guarantee argument and dissension. At the Football Writers' Awards dinner in London in 1993, I sat between two prominent Premiership players who - observed from a distance - would seem to have been warmly applauding Jurgen Klinsmann as he took possession of the trophy but were actually muttering tart comments about his reputation for diving faster than the captain in Das Boot.

This year's Scottish Football Writers' dinner in Glasgow on Sunday has been preceded by a bit of nark from the Celtic chief executive, Peter Lawwell, who stated that if his club's manager, Gordon Strachan, didn't get the accolade of Manager of the Year it would be for "non-football reasons" - Strachan will be given the accolade, despite this maladroit comment.

As in England, the Scottish Professional Players' Association have a player-of-the-year award. In the 10 years to 2005, the SPFA and SFWA prizes went to the same player on only four occasions - so who are the better judges?

"Players definitely tend to vote for players who perform well against them, and sometimes that can involve seeing something on the pitch that doesn't look particularly spectacular from the stand," says Fraser Wishart, the SPFA secretary.

"On the other hand, very few players have first-hand experience of games other than those they play in - although they are avid watchers of TV fixtures - whereas the football writers maybe see a greater cross-section of matches."

And, I would hazard, the writers have a broader view of a player's achievement. The four contenders for the SFWA award this year were Celtic's Shaun Maloney, Kris Boyd, of Rangers, and Hearts pair Craig Gordon and Paul Hartley.

For me, Gordon and Hartley were ahead of the other two because the Tynecastle pair are first-choice selections for Scotland.

Sunday's award will be presented to Craig Gordon, who did not, as it happens, make the SPFA's top four.

The Hearts goalkeeper is a grounded individual and will not duplicate the mistake of Michael Jackson at the MTV Video Awards when he was presented with a birthday trophy and thought it was an award for 'Artist of the Millennium'.

Actor Jack Black satirised Jackson with a mock acceptance speech which ended: "If someone had told me, when I was a kid, that I was going to win a super-genius of the century award, I would never have believed it."

Can anyone think of someone who might reply in such terms -only seriously - if he is named England's manager of the year? Yeah, me too…

Taken from telegraph.co.uk