Analysis Corner: End of Season Awards
By Dougie Wright (@dougie_wright)
Comeback of the year
After a tough few seasons at Rugby Park, 2017/18 looked like it was going to be more of the same.
Just one win in their opening round of fixtures left Kilmarnock facing yet another relegation battle in the top flight.
While Steve Clarke’s appointment in late October was roundly applauded by the Scottish football public, few could have guessed what the coming months would have in store.
Clarke would transform Kilmarnock into one of the best sides in the country. Indeed, from the winter break until the end of the season, Kilmarnock matched both Rangers and Aberdeen point for point. Only Celtic and Hibs took more points in the second half of the season, and only by a couple of points:
Central to this revival was Kris Boyd. While he has hardly been shot shy in the past, the veteran striker was considering retirement after netting just twice in the season’s opening 9 games.
I don’t have access to historical betting odds, but you can only imagine that the bookies would have been giving fairly generous odds on Boyd to end up top scorer at that point.
And yet he did- four goals clear of anyone else. Furthermore, Boyd actually took the most shots in the league too. This was no fluky run of goals.
As a pundit, Boyd had been accused of merely talking the talk. This season, he’s proven once again that he can still walk it too.
Best recruitment
Like Kilmarnock, Motherwell hardly started 2017/18 on a wave of optimism. They had staved off relegation in 2016/17 with only a few games to spare, and the summer had seen a plethora of free signings from the lower league of England.
So often in these situations, you worry that the club has been led up the garden path by agents who are eager to sell any old dud north of the border.
This was clearly not the case at Fir Park.
Cedric Kipré started the season without having made a single senior appearance in professional football. He ended it with a call up to the Ivory Coast national team.
Curtis Main arrived having averaged a goal every eight games in a journeyman career. He ended it with 8 goals in 20 appearances.
Trevor Carson joined from a side who had been relegated from League Two. He ended it with a debut for Northern Ireland amidst rumours of a move to Celtic.
The trio may be the pick of the bunch but Andy Rose, Peter Hartley, Charles Dunne and Craig Tanner have all taken to Motherwell like a duck to water as the Fir Park side jumped up the table and reached both domestic finals.
Win or lose at the weekend, their recruitment has transformed them from Premiership also rans to one of the more exciting teams in the country.
Biggest disappointment
After a top six finish in 2016/17, there was plenty of optimism at Partick Thistle in the autumn. While it was acknowledged that it would be even tougher to maintain their place in the top six, the club had brought in a new transfer record for centre back Liam Lindsay and there was hope that they could consolidate themselves as a reasonable mid-table outfit.
They certainly didn’t expect to be playing two extra games to preserve their Premiership status.
So what went wrong?
It seems like this Partick Thistle side really struggled to arrest a poor run of form.
It took them ten games to get their first league win. Following their next loss, they then went over a month without a win. Five points from eleven games after the winter break threatened to leave them stranded at the bottom, were it not for a Ross County side determined to outdo the Maryhill side in incompetence.
They did manage eight points in their five post-split fixtures, but even then they were bottom of the table for a nerve shredding hour on the final day.
In fairness, this was a squad that was annihilated by injuries. Callum Booth, Abdul Osman, Mustapha Dumbuya, Stuart Bannigan and Christie Elliot would all be important parts of a full strength Thistle side. All were injured for at least half a season.
History favours the Premiership side in the playoffs, and given their relatively decent post-split form, you’d think Thistle will have enough to see off Livingston. Nevertheless, I have a funny feeling Jags fans will be glad to see the back of this year.
Breakthrough of the season
To end on a positive note, last year saw a lot of fresh talent arrive in the league.
Aside from the Motherwell players previously mentioned, some standouts include Florian Kamberi at Hibs, Daniel Candeias and Alfredo Morelos at Rangers, Scott McKenna at Aberdeen and Youssouf Mulumbu at Kilmarnock.
However, coming back off the Invincible season was always going to be a tough gig for Celtic.
While they’re favourites to complete a “double treble” this weekend, there’s no doubt that this season lacked a bit more in style compared to the last. Less goals, less points and another relatively early European exit.
The lowest point was undoubtedly a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Hearts to bring their 69 game unbeaten run to a close.
Yet all clouds have silver linings. This one just happened to take the form of a giant Norwegian teenager: Kristoffer Ajer.
Since that game at Tynecastle, Ajer has missed one single league game for Cetic. Ten goals have been conceded in twenty one matches with Ajer at the helm of the defence.
Even more impressive is the fact that Ajer only started playing centre back a year ago. Sure, he occasionally thinks he has more time on the ball than he really does, but he’s been Celtic’s best find this season by a long shot.
He’s decent with both feet, happy to dribble out of defence, deceptively quick and also bloody massive.
Signing Ajer to a new four year deal may prove to be Celtic’s best business of the summer, even before the season’s over.
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