James Lawton: Professionals' ultimate insult to United luminaries passed over by fellow professionals

Don't believe it when professional footballers tell you that they never read the papers. Where else would they get some of their half-baked, London-orientated visions of who are the ultimate performers in the game they play?

The thought is provoked by the exclusion of Ruud van Nistelrooy from the Professional Footballers' Association's annual awards unveiled in London on Sunday night. He did not make the first three in the player of the year voting – nor the Premiership Xl. He was supplanted in both categories by Thierry Henry, which was unfortunate in that while Henry, a beautiful mover no doubt, had just been involved in Arsenal's catastrophic breakdown of professionalism at Bolton, Van Nistelrooy had that very day scored his 40th goal for a United side who now seem certain to reclaim the title for an eighth time in 11 years.

There were other travesties. One was the fact that Paul Scholes, while becoming the only United member of the Premiership XI, was also edged out of the top three, by Gianfranco Zola and Alan Shearer. Two superb professionals, no doubt, but did they do more than Scholes, a midfielder who scored 20 goals, including the vital first one at White Hart Lane on Sunday? Hardly.

In the Young Player of the Year category, Newcastle's Jermaine Jenas edged out Wayne Rooney on the arguable grounds that while the Everton prodigy had made a phenomenal arrival in the game, his first-team action – both for Everton and England – he was still too limited. So that was fine as far it went it. The problem was that it left John O'Shea in third place, something which made you gasp.

O'Shea, in one season, has come from nowhere to become a cornerstone of the most powerful club in England. As Sir Alex Ferguson looks around Old Trafford, who are the players he considers indispensable? They are Van Nistelrooy, Scholes and O'Shea. Jenas, no doubt, is a impressive young player of great promise. But O'Shea is the finished article. He has already proved he can play in three positions. It was another stunning oversight.

But not the most staggering. That surely was the award to Alan Shearer as Overall Premiership Player of the Decade.

It begged two questions, and they have to be asked now despite any suspicion that this entire item has been dictated by the United press office. Who were the Overall Team of the Decade? Manchester United, by the hugest margin. Who was the Overall Player of the Decade for Manchester United? By the same distance, Roy Keane.

Tranmere police wanted for questioning

I hope someone is going to ask some hard questions of the police force responsible for allowing a spectator, who had been displaying erratic behaviour beforehand, to prance around the roof of the stand at Tranmere and force the abandonment of the match against Mansfield.

The one that leaps to mind is what precisely they were doing when the man, who was charged with being drunk at a designated sporting event and aggravated trespass, was clambering up a floodlight pylon and providing, apparently, quite an amusing little cabaret.

Things might have been different had he done something as eye-catching as spit. But then he was not Wayne Rooney – and there was not, at least at the time, a headline in sight. Maybe the police will waive their charges, but perhaps the secretary of Tranmere Rovers should not rush to open his mail.