WHEN Harry Kane’s name appeared on the Young Player of the Year shortlist, you could hear the gasps from Newcastle to Norwich.
Not that the Spurs striker isn’t an incredible talent. Of that there is clearly not the slightest doubt.
What stunned many was the simple fact he is even eligible for the award, the fourth year in a row he has been a nominee.
After all, by the time next season gets underway he will have been 25 for a month. Almost entering football middle age.
In all likelihood, Kane, the 2015 winner, is probably even a shade closer to the twilight of his career than the beginning of it.
Yet that’s the crazy world of the PFA awards system. Players have to be 23 on July 1 – a month before the season begins – to be in the running.
On that score Kane slips in by 27 days. Manchester City keeper Ederson, another on the six-man short list, is less than a month older.
In that respect his nomination, too, is something of a joke. It’s only the fact he is still fresh to the Prem, still in his first season in England, that has seen his candidacy accepted without question.
ALAN SHEARER Liverpool star Mo Salah has been sensational and gets my vote for Player of the Year
But surely now the time has come to make the Young Player award one for, well, a genuinely young player.
That doesn’t necessarily have to mean someone who has only been around for a couple of years or so.
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After all, Wayne Rooney was playing in the Prem at 16, the likes of Ryan Giggs, Michael Owen and Raheem Sterling – another of this year’s nominees – not much older.
At 23, Sterling is now in his seventh season as a Premier League player, and is red hot favourite to win the award for the first time, ahead of team-mate Sane.
Kane, incidentally, is the bookies’ 25-1 fourth best for the Young category, yet third favourite behind Mo Salah and Kevin De Bruyne for the main prize.
The likelihood is, of course, that he will win neither.
Not even league 25 goals are enough compared to Salah’s stellar campaign, or the breathtaking performances of Sterling and Sane.
But when the mere naming of the candidates causes such a mix of amazement and mocking, isn’t it time to change?
Wouldn’t it be better reducing the eligibility by a couple of years, so that a young player genuinely was what it said on the tin.
No restrictions, of course, on how long you’ve been playing first team football.
You can’t punish anyone for being good enough if you’ve broken through barely out of the mid-teens.
But when the shortlist is greeted with as many chuckles as cheers, you know the system needs a tweak.
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