Tony Cascarino raved about Newcastle United attacker Salomon Rondon when picking an alternative Premier League Team of the Year.
The talkSPORT pundit had to name a side made up of only one player per club and opted to have the Venezuelan lead the line in his team ahead of Arsenal attacker Alexandre Lacazette.
The Gunners forward, who earns £182,063-a-week (Source: Spotrac), missed out on Cascarino’s team as the pundit admitted he couldn’t ignore the impact Rondon had made at St James Park this season.
“I went for Salomon Rondon okay and the other choice that I had was Lacazette, I thought Lacazette, Rondon, Lacazette, Rondon,” said Cascarino on talkSPORT (9:09am, Saturday May 11th).
“And Rondon’s impact at Newcastle has been one of the main reasons they have stayed up, he turned up from West Brom injured in summer.
“So in his first ten games he didn’t really get going but from that moment on I can’t think of a more important player for any club as what he did and led the line for him, I just had to go for Rondon.”
OPINION
It’s actually quite an interesting challenge to build a Premier League Team of the Year with only one player from each club, as with Manchester City and Liverpool dominating the division it’s so tempting to pick many players from those sides. However this approach does help put the spotlight on some players who wrongly go under the radar. While Rondon has been covered in praise this season, he hasn’t gotten anywhere near the amount he deserves. The 29-year-old overcame an injury problem and having an unsettled pre-season, which isn’t easy, to have a tremendous campaign for the Magpies. Rafa Benitez’s side were screaming out for a clinical forward last season and there was a lot of pressure on Rondon to be the man they had been missing. Most would have crumbled, but that wasn’t the case for Rondon. So for that reason it makes sense that Cascarino has named him in his Premier League team ahead of Lacazette.