Sadly, that's going to be a rarely given award in the future. Players who qualify will tend to be already at a top club or be an average player at a lesser club. Tiss was that rarity...top player at a small club. Would he stay in the modern era? Probably not, even though Saints are a better team now. Glad Matty is getting recognition...someone that it was an honour to watch and you can't say that about many players.
A quote from their interview with Matty when asked if he was ever put under pressure to leave by family/agents or if we ever wanted to sell him.... "No I didn't receive any pressure from anybody to leave the club and I think there was only manager who wanted to get rid of me. His name was Ian Branfoot, but he was a poor manager and I knew I would out last him."
“To play for the best teams is a difficult challenge. But to play against the best teams and try to beat them is an even greater challenge. That is what I do.” As they said in the article, what a magnificent thing to say. It should be painted on the home team dressing room wall at Saint Mary's in large red letters to remind the players what our club is all about. God bless you Matty.
Think Matt would be the same in this era. Saints were losing players in the 80s/90s to the bigger clubs. Only the scale because of today's squad game makes it seem like more common issue for our club.
I still find this very odd. Its great that club wants to honor LeGod but Bilbao is so divorced from our footballing spectrum that it makes no sense especially as its the inaugural edition of the award. Had the club been honoring its own players or those in the LaLiga for a while first it would make sense but this just seems weird. No disrespect intended and Matt deserves every plaudit he receives for his loyalty, but its just strange that it comes from a Basque club. Maybe its a political statement?
As I said, there won't be many who qualify, so a strange award...especially to give it to someone outside their club. Nice for Matty though.