Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have unveiled their end-of-season awards for the 2025/26 Premier League campaign, and while the two Sky Sports pundits agreed on nine players in their Team of the Season, they split over the league’s top individual prize on the final Monday Night Football of the season.
Neville selected Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, O'Reilly; Semenyo, Rice, Fernandes, Silva; Thiago, Haaland. Carragher’s XI was Raya; Nunes, Saliba, Gabriel, O'Reilly; Rice, Silva; Semenyo, Fernandes, Doku; Haaland. That meant nine of the same players made both teams, underlining how narrow the differences were between the pair’s verdicts on the season.
Neville was strongest on Timber, saying the defender was “the best right-back in the league by a mile” despite having missed the last couple of months through injury. He said he had been “toying” between Elliott Anderson in midfield and moving Bernardo Silva elsewhere, but was “unequivocal” on Timber. Carragher backed Nunes and O'Reilly for a different reason, saying he did not think Manchester City could win trophies or challenge for the title at the start of the season after seeing their full-backs.
“Nunes is a midfield player but he plays every game, he's consistent, brilliant defensively and really good on the ball,” Carragher said. He also praised Doku, saying the winger “has been fantastic.” Both men placed Haaland up front, while their shared defensive core reflected how few players forced their way into universal agreement across the league this season.
The biggest split came in the race for Player of the Season. Neville chose Bruno Fernandes, arguing that he had “played and persisted in a struggling team for half the season and then excelled” and pointing to the level of company he now shares in Premier League creativity talk with Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry. Carragher, though, went with Declan Rice.
Neville said Fernandes deserved the award because Manchester United had been in a desperate situation before Christmas before turning things around against Arsenal and City, and then beating Liverpool twice and Chelsea. “Before Christmas, the walls were closing in and it was like the world was ending at Man Utd with what was going on,” he said. “They were in a desperate situation.”
Carragher’s case for Rice was built around Arsenal’s run across several fronts. He said he was “a huge fan of Bruno Fernandes” but would still choose Rice because the midfielder’s games had not carried the same jeopardy, adding that Rice had been outstanding in the Champions League semi-finals against Atletico Madrid. He also said Arsenal had been playing midweek games constantly because they were in all the competitions, and that Rice had been a driving force for them even if fatigue had shown later in the campaign.
There was no real compromise in the end. The two pundits arrived at almost the same Team of the Season, but their Player of the Season picks told the real story of the campaign: Neville rewarded influence in a struggling side, while Carragher leaned toward impact in a team competing deep into multiple competitions. That is why Fernandes and Rice became the dividing line on a night when the rest of the XI barely changed.
