Because nothing says you’re enjoying yourself quite like an obviously staged picture on a construction site

[Photo taken from the Manchester City OS. Click it to get a closer look at the sincerity]

Sadly there’s no room for player of the year Ryan Giggs here…

It’s another end of season list, but with a twist. To stop a roundup of the 08/09 Premier League team of the season descending into a top 4 love-in, we’ve tried to limit ourselves to only one player from each club. Sticklers for punishment that we are, we’re also rigidly sticking to a classic 4-4-2. It all ended up being a lot harder than we gave it credit for:

GK - Manuel Almunia (Arsenal)
Pulled off some super saves, stopped an inordinate amount of penalties, and has been good enough to have this ridiculous nonsense about him playing for England rise to the surface again. The Spanish keeper has come a long way from Jens Lehmann’s assessment he was to rubbish to play for Arsenal.

DR - Rory Delap (Stoke)
Rory Delap made a healthy contribution to securing Stoke’s top flight status, earning priceless league (and mental) victories against the big boys at a time when Stoke were looking the unfashionable new kids while Hull cakewalked it. He spent most of the season in midfield but his position is almost irrelevent for what he brings to the team.

DL - Luke Young (Aston Villa)
Playing completely out of position, covering for a crocked Wilfred Bouma and an absolutely dreadful Nicky Shorey, isn’t an ideal way to start your first season a new club, but Young has done the job manfully, without complaint and more often than not, impressively.

DC - Phil Jagielka (Everton)
One of the most reliable performers of the season until that heartbreaking injury, Jags has had a superb campaign, reaping benefits in the form of England

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Shakhtar Donetsk overcome Werder Bremen in the final ever UEFA Cup Final
[101 Great Goals]

David Beckham has been labelled “underhand” by Stefan Effenberg
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The six dirtiest Premier League players of the season
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Pepe Reina wants Barcelona to win the Champions League
[Goal.com]

Richard Dunne is finally succeeded as Man City player of the year
[The Sun]

Neil Warnock expects a favour off the club he’s considering suing
[Croydon Advertiser]

Follow us on Twitter
[Twitter]

The games that have made this season worth watching

Now that Manchester Utd have pretty much put the final nail in the coffin of the 2008/09 Premier League title race, it’s high time that we start peddling out some end of season lists. Accordingly, here is a top ten of the campaign’s most entertaining matches, which somehow includes a game involving West Brom…

#10: West Brom 3 - 2 West Ham, 13th September

Gianfranco Zola must have been wondering what he’d signed himself up for, watching his first West Ham game from the stands before taking over as manager. A game with a neutral-baiting mix of awful defending and open attacking play, both teams managed to lose their lead twice before an 83rd minute West Brom counter attack saw Chris Brunt sprint free of the Hammers’ defence and clinically place one inside the far post.

#9: Fulham 0 - 0 Sunderland, 18th October

Sunderland’s early visit to Craven Cottage should go down as the best goalless game of the season. Fulham’s goalmouth literally took a battering. Kieron Richardson, taking time off from his usual job of lying on a physio’s table somewhere, had his 25-yard free-kick bounce between the posts twice (before having another free-kick goal disallowed) and Djibril Cisse’s rasping long ranger was saved by the crossbar. However, the Cottagers created their own opportunities in the back-and-forth battle, with Zoltan Gera having a shot cleared off the line from Pascal Chimbonda before spurning his team’s best chance with a Carragher-esque air kick.

#8: Fulham 2 - 0 Manchester Utd, 21st March

It’s testament to how crap United were

Manchester City have spent over £125 million since Mark Hughes took over last summer but despite that huge investment, they need to win all six remaining league games to improve on last season’s points tally.

The Spoiler asked back in December whether Hughes was the right man to take City forward, to which only 31% said yes. Following last night’s UEFA Cup exit, it feels like an appropriate time to conduct another straw poll.

The positives of Hughes’ first season have been the respectable European run, the 3-0 win over Arsenal and the fact they have played some fantastic football at times. The biggest success story of an indifferent campaign however has been the emergence of Stephen Ireland, a player Hughes fought to keep in the summer, as arguably the player of the season.

The negatives are fairly obvious: City will almost certainly finish with a worse points haul than last season, they lost in both domestic cups to relegation-threatened lower league teams, they haven’t won a domestic away game since August and Hughes has reportedly struggled to handle his Brazilian stars.

So should he stay or should he go? Tell us with a vote and comment below:

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Money matter$: Peter Storrie gave himself a 30 per cent pay increase last year
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Republic of Ireland star finally explains the sexy pink 4×4

In order to publicise his “journey from ridicule to respect,” The Daily Mail have published a feature on allegedly respectable Manchester City star Stephen Ireland.

Lead by a picture of the midfielder leaning against a stained glass window while looking all thoughtful, the puffy piece sets out to distance the player from the world of fictional deceased grandmothers, ‘Daddy Dick’ and the rest of the tomfoolery that has defined his career.

Within the interview feature, Ireland answered a question that has plagued Spoiler readers since February 26th 2008 - why the heck did he think a Range Rover with pink wheels and trim was a good idea?

‘The car was [Ireland’s girlfriend] Jessica’s,’ he said with a huge grin. ‘I only drove it once. Just my luck it was photographed and ended up in the News of the World. We sold it soon after as someone scraped a key down it.

Realistically, Ireland and his WAG had no choice but to sell the car after someone vandalised it. After all, it would have looked completely ridiculous with a key scrape down the side.

Manchester City stars fight to be king of the car park

With fame, millions of pounds and unlimited access to Movida’s least scrupulous ladies, one may assume that footballers live untroubled lives. Stephen Ireland and Robinho, however, have shown us that the Premier League’s pampered stars suffer the same feelings of want and inadequacy as the folks in the stands.

When Robinho decided to stop taking the bus, he picked up a shiny white Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4. When the Brazilian rolled into the club’s Carrington training ground in his £170,000 car p0rn wet dream, Stephen Ireland turned green with jealousy, and immediately went out and bought a black version of the same car.

Presumably, it’s only a matter of time before Ireland puts some pink wheels on his Italian supercar.