FWA footballer of the year was given to the player judged to have had the best season in English football starting after WWII. From 1948 to the mid 70s this award makes no sense to me at all. In the 28 seasons between 1948 and 1976 the players that won the English First Division only won the FWA Footballer of the Year twice, the historic double winning seasons of Spurs (1961 Danny Blanchflower) and Arsenal (1971 Frank McLintock). Now if you go down the list of players winning the award you see names that make sense. For example, Billy Wright, an all time great player, won it in the 50s for Wolves one of the great teams of the decade, but if you look a little closer you see that Wright won it in 52 not 54, 58 , or 59 when Wolves won titles. Then if you look even closer you see that 1952 was for Billy Wright's entire career at Wolves, their worst finishing position ever (16th) and worst defensive performance ever (73 goals conceded) and a poor performance in the FA Cup. How is it possible he was the best footballer in England in 1952... it boggles my mind. Was he really better than Jack Rowley, who scored 30 league goals for champions M. United for the 1952 season? Some awards make sense despite not going to league champions, Best in 68 being top scorer and European Champion, Bremner in 70 when Leeds chased a treble late into the season, Stanley Matthews in 63 for his FA Cup exploits (even this is ridiculous in a way, was he really better than Jimmy Greaves in 63?). But there are more seasons and award that do not make sense. Dennis Law won the Balon d'Or in 64 based solely off his amazing domestic performance for Man U but he did not win FWA Footballer of the Year in 64. Bobby Charlton did not win the award in 65 or 67 when he led Man U to the title, he won it in 66 when they finished fourth. When Busby's Babes where dominating the Division One winning by 11 and 8 points in 56 and 57 respectively, star player Duncan Edwards and Tommy Taylor who were getting Balon d'Or votes could not win FWA Footballer of the Year. Leeds had dominating title winning teams in 69 and 74 and Wolves great team of 54 that won the title beat Honved in a friendly never had players win the award. The only conclusion I can come to is that the FA Cup was seen as a more important competition until the mid 70s. During the same period of 1948 to 1976 the FA Cup winner had a team member win the award in 9 seasons. Even that is a poor correlation.
In my view some of the early awards were for players of a certain status who people felt deserved it at some point and got the vote. A little like the first Ballon d'or and Matthews winning over Di Stefano. The FWA award is done over a season but totally agree, re Law 64, Greaves 63. Also it generally only looks at club performances unlike ballon d'or.
Looking at things season by season 1948 Winner: Stanley Matthews: Blackpool finished 9th accumulating 44 points, and were FA Cup runners up. This was Matthews first season at Blackpool. I can understand this choice as Matthews led his new team to the FA Cup final and I am sure played very well throughout the year, even though he had very strong competition. Other Contenders: Joe Mercer the great left half who captained Arsenal to the title, winning the league with a 7 point margin and conceding a league low 32 goals. Ronnie Rook was the leagues top scorer, with 33 goals. He joined Mercer leading Arsenal to the title. They had the second best offense in the division and by far the best goal margin. 1949 Winner: Johnny Carey: Was an excellent player for M. United, who came in second in the league, although it was a distant second to Portsmouth. They also made it to the FA Cup semi-finals. With the lack of first hand knowledge I can't say this seems of particularly poor pick, but there is very strong competition. Other Contenders: Billy Wright was young and in his prime, captaining Wolves to their first piece of silverware under his reign, the FA Cup. Portsmouth seemed to be by far the best team of the season. They handily won the league, scoring more goals and allowing less than any other team. They also threatened to win the double, making it to the semi-finals of the FA Cup. Portsmouth's domination was attributed to their formidable half-back line trio, which was seen as the best in post war football. Jimmy Dickinson was Portsmouth's excellent young left half, who earned an England call up on the back of his performance, going on to be the most capped Portsmouth player ever (48). Jack Froggatt was the goal scoring member of the trio, netting 16 in all competitions and also receiving a call up that year, he would be capped 16 times for England. Jimmy Scoular was the combative player of the three, with tireless stamina and superior tackling. Peter Harris scored and impressive 22 goals in all comps from the wing for Portsmouth and was the clubs leading scorer. 1950 Winner: Joe Mercer led Arsenal to the FA Cup title while finishing 6th in the First Division although they were only 4 points from the top. Seems a decent pick if you consider the FA Cup as very important during this time, and their did not appear to be a clearly dominant team in league play with a very crowded top of the table. Other Contenders: Portsmouth won their second straight title and their half-back trio would all make excellent candidates again. They accumulated fewer points than last season and won the title on goal differential. Inside forward Duggie Reid deserves special mention he scored a dramatic hat trick on the final day of the season to gain the league title of goal differential, he scored 19 in all competitions. 1951 Winner: Harry Johnston: the long time Blackpool captain led his side to the FA Cup final, and a third place league finish, but a comfortable 10 points off the title. Their were other strong contenders this season. Other Contenders: The Newcastle legend Jackie Milburn was the FA Cup hero for Newcastle leading them to the title, scoring 8 goals in 8 games and 2 in the 2-0 final victory over Blackpool. If the award was heavily based on FA Cup performance he would seem to be the player of choice this season. He scored 17 in the league as Newcastle finished fourth, with one less point than Blackpool. Stan Mortensen may have a claim to being the top Blackpool player of the season over Johnston, as the legendary striker scored a league leading 30 First Division goals. He was the center piece of the second highest scoring offense in the league, while the defense, led by Johnston was middle of the road. Tottenham's famous 'push and run' side decisively won the league with an impressive 60 points accumulated, sporting many Spurs legends who would make strong candidates including Alf Ramsey and Bill Nicholson. 1952 Winner: Billy Wright: The details of this very puzzling win are in the first post. Other Contenders: Jackie Milburn had another great season leading Newcastle to a second straight FA Cup, scoring a career best 28 in all competitions, and helping make Newcastle the highest scoring team in the first division. Jack Rowley led Manchester United's first division title, scoring 30 league goals. I can't imagine how both of these players and probably others were not better candidates than Wright for 52. more to come later...
The FWA only looking at club performance makes some of the selections even more puzzling, I kept telling myself that some of these had to be based off of something done internationally (Johnny Carey in 49 and Billy Wright in 52).
I think I have been biased by recent years re club, i.e 70's onwards, as a lot of early ones were country top perfromers, i.e Matthews 48, Charlton 66 etc... Carey and Wright were big names then so a bit like the Oscars and they desreve the award at some point whether they are the best or not in that year.
Jackie Milburn was unlucky not to win in either 51 or 52 given the winners and Lofthouse was arguabley as worthy in 52 than 53 for his England performances.....maybe thats why Wright one?
I'm strongly tend to support this issue. Several times I try to find team seasonal status to know general scope in rating of players before finding how player influence to his team. In general, it is difficult to believe Billy Wright should be superb in such a poor team record even it is still possible.
I also doubt how come Charlton/Best won just once. Such an all-time mutual best British players but won only once best player in the league seems too low profile.
The thing with Wright is there are plenty of great Wolves seasons where you could make very very good cases for him, but 52 is literally the worst performance by Wolves in Wright's entire career. Most goals ever allowed, worst finishing position etc.
I would imagine that some of this comes down to exposure. Many journalists would only see a particular player (especially one who played for a team they did not cover regularly) a couple of times during the season. Performances in those games could be key in influencing some voters, and reputation would also likely play a factor.
I'm curious about some legendary players at late-40s as Finney, Mannion, Mortensen and Franklin. They should being on top form, considering were usually starters for England NT
1953 Winner: Nat Lofthouse: He had a very good year for Bolton, scoring 22 league goals, although Bolton finished a disappointing 14th after being 5th the previous season. He scored 8 FA Cup goals (scored in every round) leading his team to the final where they were defeated by Blackpool. Other Contenders: Stanley Matthews: One would think this season would belong to one of England's most legendary players, as he had his signature moment, leading his team to the FA Cup culminating with the "Matthews Final". Tom Finney took Preston North End agonizingly close to their first title, finishing the season tied with Arsenal but lost out on goal differential. He scored 17 First Division goals, his best to that point in his career. 1954 Winner: Tom Finney: In a number of ways his individual season and his teams season was not as good as the previous year. Finney had injury issues in 1954 and only played 23 games, scoring 11 times. Preston dropped to 11th in the table. They did make a run to the FA Cup final but lost the match. Finney was quoted that he could not give his best performance in the final due to injury. There seem to be a number of better candidates this year. Other Contenders: Billy Wright captain Wolves to a comfortable finish atop the table, playing 40 of the 42 league games. Dennis Wilshaw was the clubs leading scorer with 26 league goals and Peter Broadbent was the creative force behind the leagues top scoring offense (96 goals) scoring 12 times himself. Ronnie Allen led West Brom to second place in the First Division and the FA Cup title. He scored twice in the FA Cup final and 24 times in the league and had West Brom close the the elusive double. 1955 Winner: Don Revie: He scored 8 times in 32 matches, playing the new deep lying center forward role in an attempt to emulate the tactics of Hungary's Nandor Hidegkuti. He had City in position to think about the double but the team faltered down the stretch in the league and lost the FA Cup final. Other Contenders: Chelsea were suprise champions this season. They were captained by their leading scorer that season Roy Bentley who scored 21 times, including 2 in a critical away win against Wolves, who they would pip for the title after being in 12th place to start November. Jackie Milburn once again starred for Newcastle as he led them to their 3rd FA Cup of the decade, scoring in the final once again and was part of the leagues highest scoring offense.
Interesting, the FWA seems to have a thing for the FA Cup Final loser, in these first 8 years I have gone through the FA Cup loser has had a player win the award 5 times.
There's very little about Wilf Mannion on the net, but Nick Varley wrote an excellent biography about him, "Golden Boy", which covers a lot from the 40s (including the famous "Mannion Match" where he put on ashow for his fiance). I would recommend it to anyone to help understand how many players were treated by their clubs at the time, and to also provide an insight into one of the most under appreciated players in English football history. He actually missed 6 months football at the start of the 1948/49 season after going on strike as Middlesbrough were one of the few clubs that didn't make illegal payments to players (contravening the maximum wage rule) and he was offered more to play elsewhere but the club refused to sell him despite bids which would have broken the world transfer record (Aston Villa bid £25,000 and Everton declared they would pay £27,000). He was probably at his peak just before his strike, with memorable games against a FIFA XI in 1947 (after which he famously had to travel back on the train sitting on his suitcase as the FA forgot to book a seat for him) and Italy in 1948.
well I could not defend nor I meant to do so ... (since those were old days ...) but I just want to make a highlight that: 1- NOT ALWAYS the better team won the tournament 2- NOT ALWAYS the best player was on the winning side on that (particular) final game. For example: 1- WC50 and WC54 ... Brazil and Hungary were the better team but ended up losing the cup in final 2- Look at WC events in similar case: EXACTLY 8 best player of tournaments were from losing side (out of 18 total) Leonidas in 1938, Zizinho Brazil 50, Cruijff Holland 74; Schillacci Italy 90, Ronaldo Brazil 98, Kahn Germany 2002, Zidane France 2006 and Forlan Uruguay 2010.
You are right, the best player does not always play on the best team. The ratio for WC Golden Ball winner seems totally reasonable. 55% of the time the WC Champion had the golden ball winner. Between 1949 and 1976 the First Division champion had the FWA Player of the year 7% of the time... There is a big difference their.
1956 Winner: Bert Trautmann: Man City's goalkeeper put in a heroic performance in the FA Cup final, playing the end of the match with a broken neck and making critical saves no less. Not much bad you can say about that, but the competition was very strong this year. Other Contenders: Manchester United dominated the First Division, accumulating 60 points and outpacing second place Blackpool by 11 points. Despite his youth, Duncan Edwards was already one of only three player from the First Division to receive Bal0on d'Or votes that season. Tommy Taylor was the clubs star forward, scoring 25 league goals and making waves in the England's National Team replacing Nat Lofthouse as first choice striker. Stanley Matthews won awarded European Footballer of the year. Many have argued that that Di Stefano and maybe others deserved to finish above him that season (I would agree), but how do journalists vote you as the best player in Europe but not the best player in your own country? Matthews led Blackpool to the second place in the first division, their highest finishing place in his career, although they did not seriously challenge for the title. Nat Lofthouse, the legendary England striker, was the leagues top scorer for the only time in his career, scoring 33 goals helping Bolton place 8th. 1957 Winner: Tom Finney: He had a great season for Preston North End guiding them to third position in the league table, accumulating 56 points, a total that could have won the league in many years. He scored an amazing 23 goals from the wing and added 5 more in a FA Cup campaign that ended in the 5th round. Despite this excellent season I don't see how he could win the award in 57. That season six players playing in the First Division received Balon d'Or votes (Billy Wright, Duncan Edwards, Tommy Taylor, Danny Blanchflower, Stanley Matthews, and Johnny Haynes), Finney was not one of them. Other Contenders: Manchester United had, in my opinion, the greatest post war English team to the this point. They improved on the league finish in 1956, accumulating an amazing 64 points, the most by a post war team. They were one game away from doing the double, losing the FA Cup final by a single goal despite having to field an outfield player at goalkeeper due to injury. They also threatened a treble, as they reached the semi-finals of the European Cup, defeating the Belguim, German, and Spanish champions from 1956 before falling to Real Madrid's all conquering side. They made there European Cup run in style, sporting the competitions top two goal scorers. The two stars of the team were the same as last season. The midfield lynchpin was Duncan Edwards was voted third in the Balon d'Or and at the age of 20 was already a regular for the England Nation Team and was pegged to replace Billy Wright as England's next captain. Tommy Taylor scored 22 times in the league, 4 times in the FA Cup run (including the final), and 8 times in the European Cup making him the teams top scorer in all competitions. He place 8th in the Balon d'Or voting and was subject to an at the time world record £65,000 offer from Internazionale. In addition to those two, Billy Whelan was the top domestic scorer with 26 league goals and 33 in all competitions, one less than Taylor, and Dennis Viollet was the top scorer of the European Cup with 9 goals and 26 in all competitions. Another player who must be mentioned in John Charles, who single handedly propelled Leeds United into the top half of the table in their first year after promotion, leading the league in scoring with a post war record of 38 goals in 40 league games. At the end of the season he was sold to Juventus for £65,000 double the previous British transfer record and interestingly the same fee offered for Tommy Taylor the same year by Inter. As great as Finney was I don't understand how he could be rated better than Edwards, Taylor, or Charles. 1958 Winner: Danny Blanchflower: I don't very much specific information on Blanchflower in 1958, he led Spurs to their there second straight top 3 league finish. Other Contenders: The strongest contenders come from Wolves who won the league comfortably, occupying the top spot in the league from week 11 uninterrupted until the seasons conclusion. They would have been comfortable favorites to win the league, even without the tragedy at Munich, as they dropped very few points down the stretch. Billy Wright was once again captain, and led the leagues stingiest defense allowing only 47 goals. He was also the top vote getter playing in England for the Balon d'Or. Jimmy Murry had the best season of his career for Wolves scoring 32 goals, and Peter Broadbent was once again the chief creative force behind the leagues top scoring offense, scoring an impressive 21 himself. Nat Lofthouse led Bolton to the FA Cup title, scoring twice in the final. Tom Finney had a second consecutive great season, leading Preston to another close call, finishing second in the first division. Finney scored a career high 26 league goals. 1959 Winner: Syd Owen: Was a long time defender/midfielder who helped Luton Town reach the FA Cup Final where they were defeated by Nottingham Forest. At this point he was the teams player/captain/coach and was 37 years old. Luton Town placed 17th in the first division. Honestly this seems like a parody of who I would pick if I was trying to poke fun at the FWA's choices up until this point. The captain/long time faithful servant of a poor club who made a run to the FA Cup final where they lost. Other Contenders: Is there anyone on earth who really thought that Syd Owen was better player in 1959 than Peter Broadbent or Bobby Charlton? It boggle my mind. Broadbent was the creative force behind the league champions and the highest scoring offense in the post war era (110 goals). Amazingly he was also the teams leading scorer with 22 goals in all competitions. Bobby Charlton led Manchester United to a serious title challenge (finished 2nd place) one year after the Munich Air Crash devastated the team. Twice in March they achieved the top spot in the division, but could not keep pace with Wolves going unbeaten in their last 13, winning 10 of those. Charlton, still playing as a forward at this time, scored an impressive 29 goals.
1960 Winner: Bill Slater: The Wolves defender seems a solid choice, although I can't determine his individual quality, there are not a lot of strong candidates this year and he played for probably the best team in England. Wolves won the FA Cup and were one point away from winning the league and the elusive double. They also preformed better in the European Cup than their previous attempts, winning the first two rounds before being demolished by Barcelona. Other Contenders: Peter Broadbent was once again the key offensive player for Wolves (they once again scored the most goals in the league), and Jimmy Murry had another very good goal scoring season, netting 34 in all competitions. Burnley were the surprise winners of the first division, besting Wolves by a single point in a season where only 55 points won the title, they never led the table until the final game of the season which they won 2-1. John Connelly was Burnley's star player of the season. The goalscoring winger and England international led the team with 25 goals in all competitions. 1961 Winner: Danny Blanchflower: There can be no arguments here, Blanchflower was an all time great player and the undisputed leader and star of Spurs, who won the double in most impressive fashion. They outscored their opponents 115 to 55 in the league and occupied the top position for every week of the season, finishing the season with 66 points (bettering Man Us 1957 mark). In the Fa Cup no replays were required as they outscored their opponents 20 to 3, winning the final four rounds including the final by a combined score of 12 to 0. Other Contenders: Most would need to come from the great spurs team to be seriously considered. Dave Mackay was perfect compliment the Blanchflower in the midfield. Blanchflower was the skillful deep lying playmaker while Mackay, though by no means unskilled himself, provided energy, determination, and tackling. They both scored 6 times that season. Bobby Smith was the top scorer for the team that produced a post war record 115 goals. He scored 32 in all competitions and earned an England call up. John White, know as the ghost, was the teams key advanced playmaker. His passing and ball control skills were key to setting up many of the record setting 115 goals. Cliff Jones was the teams free scoring winger, who contributed 20 goals that season and was considered one of the top wingers in the world at the time. If anyone outside Spurs deserves mention it would be Jimmy Greaves, who scored an amazing 41 league goals for mid-table Chelsea. To this day his 41 goals is the most goals scored in an England top flight season post WWII.
Tom Stevens, Please continue, this thread is very useful for me. If possible, I'd like to see the best keeper and defender in each season of English league from your opinion. As the award has been voted by a large number of journalists. I also wonder why has the result is only available for the winner but not for the below ranking ? Really would like to know who finished 2nd, 3rd.... in each season.
They also didn't really like to give the award to the same player more then once, looks like some reputation lifetime achievement award (or sympathy award for the likeable 'loser' or someone for an interesting story) rather than based on actual performance that season. Usefulness for judging player performance for a season is next to none (especially early on) in my opinion.