It’s been a strange season. Tottenham Hotspur lost a Premier League club record 22 matches in 2024-25, falling all the way to 17th place, a situation literally as bad as you can get without being relegated. The only thing that has prevented this from being an unequivocally catastrophic disaster was the fact that Spurs managed to win the Europa League, thereby qualifying for Champions League next season. Imagine — England’s representatives at the highest European club competition are the teams that finished first through fifth... and also 17th.
There are plenty of caveats to Spurs’ league finish, which include one of the worst injury crises I’ve ever seen at a football club, combined with Spurs going deep in the Europa League and the two domestic cup competitions with a wafer-thin squad. That said, there’s also no question that most of Tottenham’s returning players took a step backwards statistically.
Those injuries are in part why it’s so difficult to pick a Player of the Season. You can make arguments about a bunch of different players, and it depends on what nebulous criteria you use to make the judgement. Purely a goals-in-net person? Brennan Johnson is right there with 18 in all competitions. Most important player? Dejan Kulusevski carried Spurs in the first six months of the season before injury derailed him. Most influential? James Maddison might be your man. Defensive efficacy? Cuti Romero. Availability? Pedro Porro. But nearly of them carried injuries, most of them significant and lengthy.
So what’s a blogger to do? I went back to the well, to the person who had the best mix of stats, influence, and vibes. My Tottenham Hotspur Player of the Season is Son Heung-Min.
Has he taken a step back statistically this season? Yes, but so has the majority of the team. Ahead of the Europa League final, I was leaning towards Dejan Kulusevski for this award. But 11 goals and 11 assists to go along with a team-leading 0.53 xA+xG/90 (>1000min) for this deeply flawed team is still impressive. He led the team in shots, and shots on target/90. Son struggled at times with how he fit into Ange Postecoglou’s offense, and that changed even more when the early Ange-Ball returns went sour and Postecoglou started tweaking tactics. Even so, he’s still the best player on this Spurs team, and the squad missed him when he was not available.
Sonny’s ability and willingness to play through injuries to help the team can be a strength or a weakness depending on how you look at it. I find it a bit infuriating, to be honest; we found out he was playing through a niggling foot injury for a good part of the spring, and didn’t feature in Tottenham’s final match of the season against Brighton because of that same injury. The truth is, Sonny took his role as captain seriously, to the point where he gave 100% when he himself was not 100%. 11 goals represents his lowest goal tally since his first year at the club, and yet is there a player who was more influential on this team, with his assists, with his leadership, and with his effort? I’d argue not.
For me, this award crystallized as I watched Sonny lift the Europa League trophy, Tottenham’s first silverware in 17 years, and the first Spurs European title since 1984. Son didn’t start that final and didn’t score after coming on at halftime. But he was the most important player on that pitch in Bilbao. Can you imagine anyone else lifting that trophy in that moment? I cannot.
He is a treasure, a confirmed Spurs legend, even if in a season of staggering highs and incredible lows he did not hit the individual heights he wanted. He’d probably be the first person to admit it, and apologize to you in the process. That’s maybe another reason why he deserves Player of the Season. We don’t have many more years with Son Heung-Min, it’s important to enjoy what little time remains.
Commentariat Choice: Pedro Porro
It’s not exactly a runaway choice, but it is a pretty substantial victory for Pedro Porro from the commentariat poll. And there’s a very strong argument to be made as to why Porro deserves it. For one, he’s been healthy all season, something that the majority of his teammates can’t say. Secondly, he’s been simply impressive. He finished the season third on the team with 9 assists as an attacking fullback, and has improved his crossing and set piece delivery dramatically. His defensive positioning has also improved a ton, to the point where I no longer instinctively feel nervous seeing him trying to defend speedy attackers on his side. He’s also The Athletic’s choice for Player of the Season, and who am I to disagree with Jack Pitt-Brooke? (Well, me. I am, and I already have I guess.)
Look, it’s a good choice. I’m not going to argue it. What’s interesting to me is Brennan Johnson coming in second, 20 votes ahead of Dejan. I think there’s a bit of recency bias at play here, and I’ve been making a bit of fun with Brennan as a talented but flawed player by calling him the “Lionel Messi of Nacer Chadlis” all season. That said, “POY should be the player who scores the most goals” is a perfectly valid rationale. Honestly, it’s kinda cool that there are numerous good options for Player of the Season, even a completely sicko season like this one.