Who is Manchester City’s Player of the Season?

As has become their custom, it was another summer of splashed cash in the blue half of Manchester in the build up to the 2010-11 season. Another £120 million spent on the likes of Yaya Toure, Mario Balotelli, David Silva and James Milner left many questioning if City could make a move for not only the top four but the Premier League title come May.

However, inconsistency has plagued City’s season and had, until Tuesday night, left Roberto Mancini’s men in a scrap for the final Champions League place with Tottenham. They crashed out of the Europa League to Dinamo Kiev in March but are favourites to win their first trophy in 34 years against Stoke at Wembley, having beaten their fierce rivals Manchester United in the semis on what will go down as one of the most significant games in the club’s history.

The signing of Edin Dzeko in January took the club’s transfer spending past £300m under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour but improvements will need to be bankrolled once again if City are to become a Premier League powerhouse. A number of players have impressed for the club this season and Joe Hart, Nigel De Jong and Yaya Toure in particular are unlucky to miss out on our three-man shortlist.

Below are Goal.com‘s three nominees for City’s player of the season in alphabetical order. We then cast our vote at the bottom before leaving it up to you, the readers, to have your say.

Age: 25 Appearances: 34 Goals/Assists: 0/1 Cards: 6 0

For all of the mockery levelled at City for their occasional habit of paying astronomical transfer fees for players a little more down to Earth, credit is due for pulling off one of the best bargains in the Premier League’s recent history. For only £6 million, the club signed Vincent Kompany as the man to prove a bedrock in the centre of defence. He hasn’t disappointed. Influential off the ball as he is on it, a man of the match performance in his side’s defeat of Chelsea was matched by his efforts at Wembley, where he didn’t give Berbatov a sniff. The Belgian has fast become a priceless asset at Eastlands.

Age: 25 Appearances: 49 Goals/Assists: 8/13 Cards: 3 0

City spent big last summer but none of their new stars have shone quite as brightly as the diminutive David Silva. You would think that winning a World Cup last summer would have left him near exhaustion in the latter stages of this season but on the contrary, the Spaniard has excelled since the turn of the year. Adapting to the physical element of the English game was deemed too great a challenge for Silva by some in August, but those with the intention of roughing him haven’t been able to catch him. The Iberian would walk, or rather glide, into the Manchester United team – how many City players could you say that of three years ago?

Age: 27 Appearances: 38 Goals/Assists: 22/11 Cards: 7 0

Not even acrimony and injury can stop Carlos Tevez. Having been unsuccessful in trying to secure a move away from Eastlands in the Autumn and missing much of the season’s second half due to injury, you would be forgiven for thinking that this hasn’t been as vintage a year as his first at City. Instead, the testing circumstances through which he has come only serve as reminder that the former United man is a phenomenal striker. The stats speak for themselves. Nineteen goals in 28 Premier League games and a PFA nomination for Player of the Year; City would be a far less imposing prospect without Carlito next season.