Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher used the final Monday Night Football of the 2025/26 season to unveil their end-of-season awards, and the Sky Sports pundits ended up naming nine of the same players in their Team of the Season. They agreed on most of the spine of the side, but split when it came to the individual honour that usually defines a campaign.
Neville's XI was Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, O'Reilly, Semenyo, Rice, Fernandes, Silva, Thiago and Haaland. Carragher's version kept Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, O'Reilly, Rice, Silva, Semenyo, Fernandes and Haaland, while bringing in Nunes and Doku. Neville said Timber was "the best right-back in the league by a mile," while Carragher explained that he chose Nunes and O'Reilly because, early in the season, he did not think Manchester City could challenge for the title with those full-back options. He added that Nunes was "consistent, brilliant defensively and really good on the ball," and said Doku had been fantastic.
The disagreement over Player of the Season was sharper. Neville went with Bruno Fernandes, saying he could choose Declan Rice or Gabriel, but Fernandes belonged among the best in the league for creativity and deserved credit for "playing and persisting in a struggling team for half the season and then excelling in the way he has." Carragher, though, chose Rice, describing him as "outstanding in the Champions League semi-finals against Atletico Madrid" and a driving force for Arsenal. He said Fernandes had been excellent, but argued that Manchester United had not had Europe and that he could not think of many big games in which the midfielder had been involved.
The split reflected the shape of the season as much as the players themselves. Neville pointed to Manchester United's turnaround, saying that before Christmas "the walls were closing in" and that the club had been in a desperate situation before recovering against Arsenal and City, then beating Liverpool twice and Chelsea. Carragher countered that Rice had carried Arsenal through a run of midweek games in all competitions, even if fatigue had shown around the Manchester City matches and the cup final.
For all the arguments, the overlap mattered more than the arguments. Nine shared selections in a Premier League season suggests the two pundits saw the same core of performers, even if they framed the decisive individual award differently. Neville backed Fernandes for resilience and influence under pressure. Carragher backed Rice for consistency, control and the biggest knockout-stage moments. That leaves the season's final verdict split between two familiar voices, and the debate over the best player in the league tied neatly to two different versions of what mattered most.
