The ESPN FC crew discuss the PFA Player of the Year nominees and debate which player is most deserving of this year's award. It was certainly a persuasive argument. A few years after Nottingham Forest's Peter Shilton won the 1978 PFA player of the year award, manager Brian Clough explained why it fell to his goalkeeper, rather than any other members of the club's title-winning team. "With Shilton in goal, it gave everyone else more confidence," Clough said in Duncan Hamilton's book "Provided You Don't Kiss Me." "It spread through the side.