Unsung Hero of the Year

This award has been changed from last years ‘Most Underrated Player of the Year’ thanks to Pablo’s clarity on the Chelsea FanCast #288! And in many ways ‘Unsung Hero’ seems far more fitting.

The three nominations are as follows:

Petr Cech

Petr Cech has without doubt been back to his best this season. Every year you read blogs and newspaper articles claiming that Cech is finished, or that he has never been the same since the awful head injury inflicted by Stephen Hunt.

The trouble with great goalkeepers is that when they do their job well you don’t notice them. You do however notice their mistakes, quite often forgetting the three or four saves that have kept their side in the game.

This is most definitely Petr Cech’s modus operandi. This season, clearly happy with a stable back four of John Terry, Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta and Brana Ivanovic in front of him, he has put in some great performances, including countless world class saves at key moments of games that either helped us to bag the points or secure passage to the next round of a cup.

Petr Cech is undoubtedly one of the key components of the spine of the most successful Chelsea side many of us will ever see. And yet I feel he is still undervalued by so many Chelsea supporters. I mean, he is the greatest goalkeeper in our history!! Sadly injured in the first leg of the Atletico Madrid semi-final, he is now recuperating after surgery on his injured shoulder. This of course has led many to believe that the highly rated and somewhat arrogant Thibaut Courtois will be whisked in to start between the posts next season, leaving Cech as the number 2 or possibly leaving the club.

Personally I think this would be a mistake. Cech at 31, is still young in goalkeeping terms and has massive experience which should never be taken for granted. He has clearly been the best goalkeeper in the best defence in the league this season, evidenced by his selection in the Premier League Team of the Year and winning the Golden Gloves for the third time in his career at the club.

Far better to have the two best goalkeepers in the league, surely? Either way we should cherish Petr Cech while we still have him at the club. For me a real unsung hero!

Demba Ba

A bit of a strange choice in some respects that we should choose one of our misfiring strikers as an ‘Unsung Hero’. But, in spite of being the third choice striker – even behind Fernando Torres (!) – for much of the season, Demba finished it with aplomb.

On 8 March 2014, he scored twice after coming on as a 76th minute substitute in a 4–0 win over Tottenham Hotspur. On 8 April 2014, Ba scored an 87th minute goal in the Champions League quarter-final second-leg against Paris Saint-Germain to send Chelsea through to the semi-finals. On 13 April, he scored the winning goal as the Blues won 1–0 at Swansea City. On 27 April, during Chelsea’s third to last match against Liverpool, Ba scored and Chelsea won the game 2–0, helping them to stay in the race for the Premier League title and poop on the scousers party in the process.

So he scored some crucial goals and also against some bitter rivals. But there is more. He seems like a genuinely nice guy and a real team player. He knows he might not be world class or perhaps even a striker befitting Chelsea, but he has never complained once, and when called on he’s done his best. Oh and he is a connoisseur of strawberry syrup, he comes from Africa and he plays football!

Samuel Eto’o

Our third choice for ‘Unsung Hero’ is another of the ‘misfiring strikers’ – Samuel Eto’o. Eto’o arriving was seen as some sort of daft joke by many. He was clearly past his sell by date, and having languished in the Russian league was desperately out of form and fitness. But form is temporary and class is permanent, and in his day Eto’o was one of the world’s deadliest strikers.

The mind was active even if the body wasn’t and watching Eto’os movement and intelligence on the pitch was a revelation compared to what we were used to from Torres. He also came up with some crucial goals such as the hat-trick against Man Utd and the openers against Spurs, Galatasaray and Arsenal. Some of them such as the poaching out of the hands of the goalkeeper against Schalke were hilarious, others were absolutely superb – goal of the season contender against Arsenal.

Beyond the performance and the goals though, Samuel Eto’o is clearly a big character – a ‘Don’. He would often be seen giving advice to or wrapping an arm around the younger players. He would also acknowledge the Chelsea supporters or milk the applause from them. His goal celebrations should go down in Chelsea history – the fervour with he celebrates is something to be seen. And he is clearly a man of comedy. The ‘Old Man’ goal celebration against Spurs having been accused by Jose of being nearer to 40 than 30 was priceless, and then of course the incident where he appeared to snort something which we presumed to be amyl nitrate but was in fact good old fashioned smelling salts. He has taken to the Chelsea supporters and we have taken to him. His use of the #ElloEllo hashtag in recognition of our song for him is brilliant and some of his twitter photos of his esoteric fashion sense are beyond description. A real cult hero and certainly an unsung one!

If you want to vote for the Unsung Hero of the Season then all you have to do is vote below. We will be revealing the results and discussing what we voted for on the Chelsea FanCast on Monday 19^th May. Watch the show live at 19.00-21.00 GMT (Voting closes at 19.30 GMT) by going to sportstonightlive.com or on this website here or of course you can listen and post in the chat room at Mixlr. 

 Loading ...