Which footballers have won player of the year awards at relegated clubs? | The Knowledge

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“Has a player ever won his league’s player of the season award when playing for a relegated club?” tweeted Lucy Keating.

Jim McEleny was on hand to answer this with a fine example from Scotland. “It was 1985 when, if I remember correctly, Jim Duffy, then playing sweeper for Greenock Morton, won the SPFA players’ player of the year award while being at the heart of a badly relegated defence. As a lifelong Morton fan I still hate to think how bad that season would have been without his regular and reliable man-of-the-match performances with last-ditch tackles behind the back four week after week. Amazingly, when Duffy won this in 1984-85, Morton came bottom of the Scottish Premier Division with 12 points from 36 games and a goal difference of -71.”

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