Man City: Vincent Kompany Named Barclays Premier League Player of the Season

The Barclays Player of the Season award goes to Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany, after helping City's defence to keep 17 clean sheets this season.

Since signing for the ridiculously low fee of around £6m from Hamburg back in 2008, Belgian international Kompany has developed a reputation as an imperious, no-nonsense centre-half, and his last performance against Newcastle United showed exactly his value to his team. Facing a Newcastle attack famed for its goals, Kompany stopped all but a couple of chances falling to prolific marksman Papiss Cisse and provided the firm base for his team to push forward in the final third of the match and take home an invaluable 2-0 away win. Unfortunately for international football fans, Kompany's national side will not feature at this summer's European Championships - somewhat unthinkably given the collected talents of the squad - but with the final game of the domestic season coming this weekend, and club side Manchester City sitting on top of the league, Kompany will be more than happy with his season. Many commenters have suggested that Robin Van Persie should have won the accolade, given how valuable his goals have been to Arsenal this year, but Kompany has been just as invaluable to Man City, who would not be in the same position were it not for the Belgian's influence on the pitch. Those performances have already seen Kompany awarded the Manchester City Official Supporter's Player of the Year and the Manchester City Player's Player of the Year, and this one rounds out an impressive hat-trick for the defender. What do you think? Did Kompany deserve to be named Player of the Season? Should it have gone to RVP? Let us know below.