Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher's 2025/26 awards: Player, team of the season and more on Monday Night Football
Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher reveal their end-of-season awards for the 2025/26 Premier League campaign; Sky Sports pundits name nine of the same players in Team of the Season but disagree on Player of the Season pick
Tuesday 19 May 2026 00:05, UK
Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have picked their Premier League team and player of the season.
Appearing on the final Monday Night Football of the season, the Sky Sports pundits dished out their awards for the 2025/26 campaign.
- Transfer Centre LIVE!| Latest on YOUR PL club!
- Premier League fixtures & scores | FREE highlights▶️
- Got Sky? Watch PL games LIVE on your phoneđŸ“±
- Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOWđŸ“º
Read on to find out who they picked and why...
Gary Neville's Team of the Season
Neville's XI: Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, O'Reilly; Semenyo, Rice, Fernandes, Silva; Thiago, Haaland.
"I was toying between Elliott Anderson in midfield and putting Bernardo Silva somewhere else, he was my last pick. I was unequivocal at right-back. Timber has been injured the last couple of months, but he's the best right-back in the league by a mile. He has it all."
Jamie Carragher's Team of the Season
Carragher's XI: Raya; Nunes, Saliba, Gabriel, O'Reilly; Rice, Silva; Semenyo, Fernandes, Doku; Haaland.
"I went with Nunes and O'Reilly because at the start of the season, when I saw who Man City had at full-back, I didn't think for one minute they could win trophies or challenge for the title. Nunes is a midfield player but he plays every game, he's consistent, brilliant defensively and really good on the ball. Timber has had a few injuries. Doku has been fantastic.
Gary Neville's Player of the Season: Bruno Fernandes
Neville: "I could say Declan Rice, Gabriel, Bernardo Silva, but Bruno getting level with Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry puts him in the very best company in terms of what the Premier League has to offer creativity.
"I could look a fool in a couple of weeks as Rice and Gabriel could end up with a Premier League title and Champions League double, but Bruno deserves it for playing and persisting in a struggling team for half the season and then excelling in the way he has.
"Before Christmas, the walls were closing in and it was like the world was ending at Man Utd with what was going on. They were in a desperate situation. They turned it around against Arsenal and City, have beaten Liverpool twice and Chelsea. If you don't play well, you get criticised heavily."
Jamie Carragher's Player of the Season: Declan Rice
Carragher: "I'm a huge fan of Bruno Fernandes, but you're picking a player whose games haven't had any real jeopardy. I'd go with Declan Rice. He was outstanding in the Champions League semi-finals against Atletico Madrid.
"He's been a driving force for Arsenal. He dropped off a little bit around the Man City games and the cup final was because of a little bit of fatigue. They've constantly been playing midweek games because they're in all the competitions.
"Man Utd went out of both cup competitions; they didn't have Europe, I can't think of many big games that Bruno has been involved in."
Awards in full: Young Player of the Year
Neville: "Nico O'Reilly. What a player. I still can't get my head around, at the Etihad in the corner, skipping past about two or three players.
"The Carabao Cup final too, with two goals. You don't do that. I've been a young full-back breaking through, going into the England set-up after 20 or 30 games. But not like that - he's like Gareth Bale going forward, and Paolo Maldini when he defends.
"I can't envisage how full-back has changed that much when you have this presence, confidence and belief in such a young player."
Carragher: "Nico O'Reilly. It seems to me that Pep Guardiola thinks that he's got to find a place for him in his team. It started in midfield and then moved back to left-back. There was the game at Burnley where Rodri was out and everyone thought a midfielder would come in, and then he put him in ahead of an experienced midfielder.
"It just tells you what he thinks of him. Last season away at Bournemouth, he changed the game in the FA Cup. He's been in the team ever since. It's not just playing left-back, he pops up at No 10, he's a wonderful talent."
Signing of the season
Neville: "Granit Xhaka at Sunderland. When you think of the impact, how hard it's been for clubs who come up to stay in the Premier League. He's had an enormous influence on that squad."
Carragher: "Rayan Cherki has been a great addition to the Premier League. There's not an awful lot of mavericks any more. He's so two-footed. Xhaka's been brilliant but Cherki is there just for the type of player he is, really."
Most improved player
Neville: "I'm always biased towards full-backs and I nearly put him in my team, Matheus Nunes. He looked like a bit of a flimsy midfield player who didn't really have the presence, and then he went to full-back where it felt like a classic midfielder who couldn't play midfield, so put him there.
"In his first few months there I thought it meant City would give you a chance, but you watch him this season - he looks athletic, stronger, the confidence of playing... Pep Guardiola has a habit of getting performances out of players who aren't as good as they look.
"But he looks like a brilliant right-back this season, who's aggressive, goes forward, understands the position and defends his back post reasonably well."
Carragher: "There's a lot of history at Man City where players improve under Pep Guardiola. For me, Jeremy Doku is the most dangerous player one-vs-one, he can go left and right.
"He looked a bit erratic when he first arrived, didn't really have any end product, but for me this season if I was playing full-back and there was one winger I didn't want to face it would be Doku."
Manager of the year
Neville: "I think I misunderstood the question, but I'd said Daniel Farke! I had him as my most improved manager. He's been relegated a couple of times and to keep Leeds up, and where they were in January and on the verge of sacking him... But manager of the year for me is Mikel Arteta."
Carragher chose Mikel Arteta.
Coaching performance
Neville: "I've put Andoni Iraola, for losing his three defenders and where Bournemouth still are."
Carragher: "Unai Emery. At the start of the season, you've got to remember where Aston Villa missed out on the Champions League in the last game of last season. You know what that means, the revenues coming in - and we know Villa have been on the edge of PSR for a long time.
"They then had a really difficult transfer window, bringing three players in on the last day. They then couldn't score a goal, but what they managed to do was be the only team besides City and Arsenal who you would class in a title race at any stage."
Overperformers
Neville: "I had Brentford down as being potential strugglers, having obviously lost Thomas Frank and thinking that that would be a hammer blow to them.
"So for what Keith Andrews has done, and from what I thought they would do, they've had a sensational season and deserve great credit."
Carragher also chose Brentford.
Underachievers
Neville: "I think everybody's underachievers are Spurs, aren't they? Tottenham have got to be the underachievers, in everybody's book I would imagine. Although they actually have had a very similar season to last year, I know, but they're serial underachievers - they're really good at underachieving."
Carragher chose Liverpool.
Goal of the season
Neville: "Dominik Szoboszlai's free-kick against Arsenal. It was a special strike. That day, it was a big goal. The goalkeeper you're playing against counts too. You can't get anything past David Raya."
Carragher: "I was commentating on Harry Wilson's goal against Crystal Palace and I just thought it was a wonderful strike. The outside of the left foot.
"Sometimes people just hit it and it goes in the top corner with a little bit of luck. Everything he did, he meant to do."
Favourite game
Neville: "I thought the Manchester United 2-0 Manchester City derby win was breathtaking, in a time where Man Utd had been knocked out of the FA Cup the week before, had drawn at Burnley under Darren Fletcher, and there was no expectation that they would play like that.
"Forget the result, but just the performance. I remember screaming when the second goal went in and getting told off after the game but you can't help it. It was the turnaround moment for the club this season."
Carragher chose Arsenal 2-3 Manchester United.
