Player of the Season

West Brom ended their 2010-2011 home Premier League Campaign successfully yesterday with a 1-0 victory over Everton. The win importantly brought the club their first clean sheet since August, a startling statistic when you consider their eventual comfortable mid table position and the collective defensive improvements that Roy Hodgson has delivered in his short tenure. The success has also given the team an opportunity to become the highest placed West Midlands club, an achievement not seen since the halcyon 78-79 season. A third important statistic from the game was the seventh goal of the season from Youssuf Mulumbu and it is decided that this penultimate Scrapplejack Reborn Blog will be dedicated to the 24 year old defensive midfielder who has also won my award for player of the season.


Mulumbu is currently in his third season at West Brom having initially signed on loan from Paris St Germain in January 2009. During the six games he played in that relegation season, he impressed the staff sufficiently to complete a permanent move in the summer. This drop in division gave the DR Congalese international an opportunity to get to grips with the day to day requirements of English football and prepare himself for another go at the highest level. After proving to be a consistent star performer in di Matteo's promotion winning side, Mulumbu has taken his game to new heights this term with a string of energetic and passionate performances in the heart of Albion's midfield. The odd suspension allowing, Mulumbu is a permanent fixture in the starting eleven and even more impressive are those seven goals he has contributed from his holding midfield role.

There are those who consider 15 goal striker, Peter Odemwinge should sweep all end of season player awards and there is a little bit of, perhaps, justified criticism of Mulumbu when he starts to attempt to spray Hoddle-esque passes around the field, which is clearly not his game. However the main reason for him being my choice over his fellow African for the award, is the consistency he has showed all season in the engine room where many Premier League games are won or lost. Also he did not have a mid season blip like Odemwinge and his, to-date, haul of seven league goals puts him second place behind the star striker in the scoring chart. He has been an integral part of an ultimately successful Premier League team and in my opinion fully deserves this award.

So it's off to Newcaste now and one more game before the season ends. The final Scrapplejack Reborn Blog next week will contain an individual player review and reflect on their contribution to our impressive campaign. So a final mention to Roy Hodgson for his impact and Jeremy Peace for his decision, and not to forget the autumn start that Roberto di Matteo gave us but at the end of the day football is about the players, and they deserve to be the final focus of this blog.