Like Darius Vassell's England career, the season is well and truly over, so it's time to dish out the end-of-season gongs.
Who made the difference in your club's season? Who lived up to all expectations like a sausage sandwich after a big night out? And who flopped like Pele without viagra?
Below, the setanta.com office has joined forces to pick our success stories and disappointments of a quite gripping campaign, feel free to congratulate us on our genius or destroy us for our cluelessness using the comments box below.
BLACKBURN
Player of the season: Chris Samba. Stephen Warnock got the fans’ and players’ vote, but Chris Samba stood head and shoulders (literally not figuratively) above the Liverpudlian. Solid defensively, his admirable, if slightly comedic, attempts at leading his team's attack at the end of the season were the nuisance value that helped secure Rovers' Premier League status.
Young player of the season: Aaron Doran. In appearance, a curious hybrid of David Thompson and that berk from the Kooks, the Irish winger broke through into the first team at the end of the season and looks Rovers' most promising Academy graduate.
Best signing: Gael Givet. Acclimatised sans seam to life in The Premier League following his January transfer window arrival from Marseille. Givet filled in first at left back allowing Stephen Warnock to push into midfield before performing even more impressively at centre back. His permanent signing will be one of the best pieces of business Sam Allardyce does this summer.
Worst signing: Robbie Fowler. Habitually injured, Vince Grella is not yet £4 million well spent, but, for shattering supporters’ hopes before the season had even started, Paul Ince's decision to sign Robbie Fowler gets our vote. The similarly baffling arrival of Keith Andrews meant some of his team's fans were chanting 'you don't know what you're doing' before Ince had even named a Rovers XI. Funnily enough, he didn't...
Disappointment of the season: Paul Ince. Came with high hopes and Rovers chairman John Williams even thought that he had unearthed Mark Hughes Mark II. They both played for Manchester United, but sadly that was where the similarities ended.
Moment of the campaign: Tugay’s farewell. The final day of the Premier League season was 90 minutes of Tugay appreciation. Five minutes from full-time, the retiring Turk left the field to a standing ovation. The fondest memory in a 2008/09 best forgotten for aficionados of arte et labore.