IAIN MACINTOSH: A toe-rag but the boy’s got talent

Ok, so he’s a biting, cheating, diving toe-rag with a history of racial abuse, but he’s a hell of a player, isn’t he?

Thanks to Luis Suarez, there’s every chance the PFA are going to have to go with that as a press release next weekend. After all, the votes are already in. He may have already be the new Player of the Year.

It’s a shame that the footballers may have their awards ceremony overshadowed by this because for once they’ve done a really good job. Usually they do something silly, like vote for a bit-part Ryan Giggs, or complete forget about Vincent Kompany, but this year they surprised everyone by coming up with six players that very few people could complain about.

It’s not perfect; there is a gaping hole in the Young Player of the Year shortlist where Matija Nastasic should be and I’m having serious problems accepting Gareth Bale as a youngster when he’s played nearly 300 competitive football matches, but by their standards it’s quite sound.

The obvious trio of Bale, Robin van Persie and our hungry friend from Liverpool are natural selections and Juan Mata has pulled Chelsea out of the fire so many times that he has a legitimate claim to be known as the fourth emergency service.

Michael Carrick is a preemptive strike against the football hipsters and while Eden Hazard has been sporadically brilliant and is a little fortunate to be chosen ahead of Michu, it’s hardly something to spark a rebellion.

But just as everyone was looking forward to a boozy night of awards with their peers, Suarez popped up to provide the material for another chapter of his future memoirs.

For some, the Uruguayan’s efforts this season should have been discounted because of his spat with Patrice Evra in 2011, an understated row that you may have already forgotten about. Now others will assemble at their flag, convinced that you cannot give the Player of the Year Award to a man who went for Branislav Ivanovic like an extra from Dawn of the Dead.

It is true that Suarez was charged and found guilty of racially abusing Evra and made to serve an eight-match ban. It is also true that Suarez has still not apologised to Evra for the incident. But the idea that we should, as a community, ignore the man from now until he slinks out of the Premier League is ridiculous.

Even if he does keep biting people.

Suarez is an outstanding footballer. He is also a nasty little toe-rag. Van Persie used to be a nasty little toe-rag too, that’s how Arsenal were able to sign him for such a pitifully small fee. Bale is a diver, a man who can drop like the price of gold at the slightest hint of contact. Hazard has not exactly been shy about embracing the turf either. Granted, Mata is lovely and Carrick is about as threatening as vanilla ice-cream, but you cannot start handing out awards for being nice. If we were to discount all of the footballers who have disappointed us, we would not have very many footballers to choose from, and that list of past winners would need some serious pruning as well.

No-one is suggesting that Suarez runs for public office, or that he fronts a new campaign to fill the youth of today with the Corinthian spirit. We just want to recognise the fact that he’s been very good at football.

Suarez’s determination and… erm… appetite for the game has been an example to his team-mates.

In a disappointing, transitional season, he has rarely given anything less than all that he has. The very qualities that made Scott Parker such a popular choice for journalists in 2011 are abundant in Suarez’s play and he has every right to be rewarded on an individual level. After all, he’s scored more goals than any other player, and he’s done it without the service that some of his rivals have enjoyed.

He may not be a very good man, but he’s an outstanding footballer and he deserves to be in contention for this award. And seriously, if you can get past the flesh-eating, he’s wonderful company.