Already touted by some commenters on this site as a potential winner, Chris Burke has had a very good year for Blues. Mr Consistent; having appeared in more Blues games than any other player, Burke has been at forefront of a lot of what Blues have done right.

I’ll be man enough to admit my love for the former incumbent on the right flank but Chris has more than stepped up to fill the Seb-shaped hole in my heart. His stats speak for themselves; 8 league goals, 10 in all competitions and joint top in the Championship assists table with eleven point to a player who has really been an attacking force for Blues.

Burke hit the goal trail for Blues with an equalising goal in the last few minutes of the home game against Barnsley, and they’ve come at fairly regular intervals since. Whilst he is more than capable of popping up at the back post to smash home a long cross, Burke has made a speciality of cutting inside the full back and lashing home goals from outside the box with either foot. He’s equally capable of getting to the byeline and putting in a ball with his right or checking back onto his left and crossing with his weaker foot – in short, a proper winger.

He’s not scared to put a shift in either; more than once you’ll see the ginger Scot hare back to help out his full back and I think it was this consistency and drive that convinced the other ginger Scot connected with the club at the time to sign him on a Bosman free. With Stephen Carr liking to get forwards and overlap his winger, it was vital that Blues signed a winger who could help cover that if the ball as lost and Burke can do that.

As the season has worn on, there have been concerns that Burke is slowly wearing out; of all the squad Burke has played more games than anyone else (after the Leicester game he stands at 47 out of 49). However, there has been no complaints from Burke; no shirking of tackles and no drop in effort; admittedly, he’s been marked out of games a bit more of late and he’s had to carry the burden of often being the sole wide midfielder playing between the sale of Jean Beausejour and the signing of Andros Townsend on loan but he’s got on with it and tried to do the best that he can.

Burke is just hitting the prime years of his career now at the age of 28, and I wonder just how much his value has gone up since we signed him at the start of the season. Should Blues fail to be promoted I can honestly see some of the smaller Premier teams looking at taking on the services of the mercurial Scot. It’s been a great season for Burke, and I hope he can finish it in the same vein.

Chris Burke Stats: played 41(6) goals 10 yellow cards 5

Voting begins on Sunday.

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