Premier League 10 Seasons Awards

[3] After its creation, the Premier League carried on the traditional system of promotion and relegation, which sees the exchange of teams between the lower division at the end of each season, based on finishing positions.

[1][2][4][5][6] The Premier League 10 Seasons Awards were decided through a combination of selection by a panel of 10 football experts, and public voting.

Shearer has been described as a classic English centre-forward with great shooting power, a single-minded striker who could intimidate the defenders whose role was to stop him.

[22][23] In July 1992, just before the inaugural Premier League season, Shearer moved to Blackburn for a then domestic record transfer fee of £3.3m, making his début two days after his 22nd birthday.

[21][22][23] After scoring 31 league goals in the 1993–94 season in which Blackburn finished in second place, Shearer was named Player of the Year by the Football Writers' Association in May 1994.

[20][22] Shearer had had a two-day trial with Newcastle at St James' Park in 1982, but they had rejected him without having struck a ball, having chosen to play him as a goalie.

[5][16][19] Cantona won the award for a decade spanning 1992 to 2002 even though he retired in 1997, and during his playing career in the Premier League he had served an 8-month ban from football, for an infamous 'kung-fu' style attack on a spectator.

[29] His purchase from Leeds was described as "the final piece in Alex Ferguson's jigsaw", and was considered extremely good business, along with other arrivals Peter Schmeichel and Denis Irwin.

In his time at Manchester United, Cantona scored 82 goals in 185 appearances, and won the Premier League title four times in five years from 1993 to 1997, with United being pipped to the title by one point on the last day of the 1994–95 season by Blackburn Rovers, with Cantona having begun his ban from football in the run-in of that season, in March 1995.

[27][30] Just before the 10 Seasons Awards launched, on 30 November 2002 Cantona became one of the 23 inaugural player inductees to the English Football Hall of Fame.

[35] Beckham's audacious 60-yard strike was made from 1 yard inside his own half (i.e. behind the half-way line) wide out on the right hand side of the pitch, and passed over the Wimbledon goalkeeper Neil Sullivan's head into the goal.

[9] Commenting on the goal at the time, Manchester United's manager Alex Ferguson stated, "I've never seen it done, Everyone is scratching their heads in the dressing room to try and remember something similar.

[16][19] The save came on 24 minutes, when a cross from deep on the left by Stuart Pearce was met with a "seemingly unstoppable" powerful goal bound header from John Barnes.

Schmeichel dived to make a "stunning reflex save" from close range to palm the ball around his goal post.

[14][36][37] Manchester United eventually won what was a bad-tempered game 1–0, watched by the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

[15][16][19] In the final stages of the 1995–96 FA Premier League season, Kevin Keegan's Newcastle had seen a 12-point lead accumulated in the five months to January clawed back by April.

By the time of this fixture, Newcastle stood in second place, three points behind Manchester United, with Roy Evans' Liverpool side also in contention for the League title.

A classic attacking encounter also characterised by some cavalier defending, the game was described as having been played at a breathtaking, breakneck pace for the entire 90 minutes.

With ten minutes to go, Owen latched onto a deflected shot and slipped the ball through the United goalkeeper Massimo Taibi's legs, which crept wide just past his left hand goalpost.

To be honest, had it happened earlier in the game when I had more time and things were less frantic, I probably would have deleted it as you couldn't make out the faces on the crowd on the back of the camera, and it was only when I pulled it up on the laptop later that I realised what I had.

", declared live on television by Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan on 29 April 1996, was chosen as Quote of the Decade.

[49] In that penultimate weekend of the season, Manchester United demolished Nottingham Forest 5–0 at home on Sunday 28 April extending their lead to 6 points and putting the pressure on Newcastle for their game away to Leeds at their Elland Road ground.

[48] After the game however, live on Sky Sports an emotional Keegan made his speech, pointing his finger to the camera:[48] Some of the things that have been said in the last few days have been almost slanderous, I think you should send a tape of that [match] to Alex Ferguson.

[13][16][19] After a playing career in Scotland, by the time of his move to Manchester United in November 1986, Alex Ferguson was already a recognised successful football manager, having got St Mirren promoted to the Scottish Premier Division from the Scottish First Division as champions in the 1976–77 season, and going on to win several domestic and European trophies from 1980 to 1986 with Aberdeen, and being awarded the OBE in 1984.

[28] After guiding United to Premier League and FA Cup Double in their 1993–4 season, Ferguson was made a CBE in the 1995 New Year Honours.

[54] Just before the 10 Seasons Awards launched, on 30 November 2002 Sir Alex become one of the six inaugural managerial inductees to the English Football Hall of Fame.

"[11] Radebe was selected by the judges panel from a short-list which also included Warren Barton, John Barnes, Dion Dublin, Bryan Gunn, Gary Mabbutt, Chris Powell, Niall Quinn, David Unsworth and Tommy Wright.

Having achieved a level and status as a professional player in the Premier League and in South Africa, means I have been lucky enough to have been in a position to make a difference Dave Richards, chairman of the Premier League stated: "Lucas Radebe has done ample to deserve this accolade and is an example for us all to follow as someone who has not just worked hard for the people of Leeds, but has also found the time and energy to help the communities of his homeland.

[11] The 10 Seasons Awards also recognised a number of statistical feats achieved during the decade, in the following categories: Dominic Raynor writing for ESPNsoccernet wrote of the awards that "it is with some justification that the Premier League are celebrating their ten year anniversary this season with much back slapping and lavish distinction", crediting the Premier League with having evolved and improved the state of English football from a tarnished image, and established the competition as "one of the best leagues in the world", adding that "while it may be behind Spain's Primera Liga in terms of quality its pacy, physical style has been branded as the most exciting".

[1] James Lawton writing for The Independent said that "there is surely a need for at least one cry of indignation over the [Premier League's] increasing habit of trying to make instant history."