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.
BOLTON
Player of the season: Jussi Jaaskelainen
The Finnish keeper has kept goal for The Trotters in some style for 12 years now, and every season he seems to get better and better. His display against Hull in the 1-1 draw in Bolton’s penultimate game was pure class, as he produced the save of the season to deny Daniel Cousin. Consistently brilliant.
Young player of the season: Gary Cahill
The centre-back has developed into a class act since joining Bolton from Aston Villa 18 months ago. His form throughout the season saw Bolton boss Gary Megson underline his England credentials, and sure enough he was drafted into Fabio Capello’s squad for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers with Kazakhstan and Andorra due to Rio Ferdinand’s injury.
Best signing: Mustapha Riga
Granted he didn’t have much competition in Danny Shittu and Johan Elmander, but Riga has impressed in snatches with his pace and trickery in his debut season. Only two league starts and 15 from the bench were afforded the winger, but he offered enough hope. Ebi Smolarek could have nabbed this award, had he been given a chance to impress.
Worst signing: Johan Elmander
Okay, we know he’s come out and responded to criticism about his lack of goals, but no amount of “people don’t realise what my game is about” quotes will lead to a change in opinion that a club-record fee of £10m does not correlate well to five league goals.
Disappointment of the season: Danny Shittu
Bolton only won one of the ten games in which summer-signing Shittu played in. he publicly expressed his unhappiness at the lack of opportunities he was being afforded and then when he played his first game in over a month at Hull in May he boo-booed badly for Craig Fagan’s goal. Reportedly a transfer target for Premier League new-boys Wolves and Birmingham…
Moment of the campaign: The 4-1 win at home over Boro
A timely, handsome victory in early April – their last win of the season – gave Bolton a valuable three points as well as an emphatic home result.