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THE SIX O'CLOCK MUSE: April 14th

In the rundown to the season finale, our writers give their verdicts on their players of the year.

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With the announcement that Dimitri Payet, Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Mesut Özil, N'Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez have been nominated for the PFA Player of the Year award, it's decision time.

But whilst there are no Southampton representatives, that doesn't mean we're going to do an Aston Villa and not look at the Saints player of the year nominees; oh no.

We asked our writers:

Who should win the PFA Player of the year, and who is Southampton's man of the season?


Daniel Williams

Vardy.

I want to preface this by saying I won't be going to watch a film about him. His story may be astonishing but he is a vile little man and his casino antics were appalling.

On the field, however, he has been incredible. He single-handedly dragged Leicester into a title winning position during his record breaking goalscoring run. He cut us to pieces at St Mary's, and he has to start for England at the euros.

As for Saints it's Van Dijk. He is a perfect example of total football. He is brilliant at every facet of the game. I wish we had nine more of him to play in every other outfield position; we would win the league by a mile.

Tommy Scott

Riyad Mahrez for Leicester City has been in a way the unsung hero to the Foxes unbelievable run. With 16 goals and 11 assists (I think?), Mahrez has been a vital piece to Leicester's attack and I'd be willing to say that without him, they wouldn't be doing nearly as well as they are.

Saints player of the year, and close competition to VVD, has to be Shane Long; the man who was deemed overpriced has totally come on as Southampton's best attacking player.

With his pace and ability to cause trouble for any back line, Shane has been a massive disruption in any team's plan to beat the Saints. Also, he scores a goal or two, so that helps as well.

Connor Armstrong

My player of the year is N'Golo Kanté. The guy has been a class act from the moment he walked in the door at the King Power Stadium. Costing just short of £6m he's been tremendous value for money and I'd bet my last dollar that Leicester wouldn't be close to leading the league - let alone having a seven-point advantage - without him in midfield.

Saints wise, again, it's Virgil van Dijk for me. He'd been linked with Southampton for a long while and came in to replace Toby Alderweireld for a fee of £12m. Combine those reason and there was a suitable air of expectation and pressure was understandably present. But, he's handled it all superbly and been an excellent addition to the team. The best thing is, I think he'll get better and better. And he'll do that in a Saints shirt, too.

George Galpin

My player of the year is N'Golo Kante.

I feel sorry for Toby Alderweireld as he has been superb in turning one of the leakiest defences in the Premier League into the tightest, much like he did at Southampton.

But this pocket size Frenchman has been absolutely superb. For £6m from Caen, he's been bargain of the season by a country mile, and deserves the recognition; Leicester would miss him the most out of all their players, I think.

As for Saints player of the season, I'm going to go for Virgil Van Dijk once more. Put simply he's replaced Alderweireld extremely well; that for me says it all about how good he has been for Saints. With the amount of years on his contract I can foresee him staying for at least another season yet, too.