Premier League to launch Hall of Fame, with inaugural entrants in March

It’s a slow day Tottenham Hotpur news-wise, but this showed up in my feed today and it’s worth talking about. The Premier League has announced a new initiative — a Hall of Fame, with two inaugural nominees to be inducted in March.

According to the league’s press release, the Premier League Hall of Fame will “recognize and celebrate the exceptional skill and talent of players who have graced the competition since its inception in 1992.” The award will represent the “highest individual honor” awarded by the league to its former players.

Two players will be inducted in March, and a shortlist of other candidates will be released for future induction in 2020, with fan voting given some weight into consideration on who will join the Hall of Fame.

It’s a good idea, and quite frankly it’s a little surprising that it’s taken 28 years for them to actually bring something like this to fruition. Based on the release it looks like it will recognize players only, and NOT managers. That means that Sir Alex Ferguson, who would otherwise be a shoo-in for one of the inaugural inductions, will not be one of the names.

So who will? There are a couple of options, but I would guess Alan Sherer, still the Premier League career scoring leader, will be one of the inaugural inductees. Other options include Thierry Henry, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Roy Keane, Eric Cantona, Steven Gerrard, or Gareth Barry. And of those names whoever isn’t immediately inducted will almost certainly be on the shortlist for future induction. I’d like to think that Tottenham players like Gary Lineker and Ledley King would have an outside shot, but while I can’t imagine that he won’t join the Hall eventually it may not be this year.

Who do you think will be the two players inducted, and who do you think should be?