THEY will announce the nominees for the PFA Scotland Premiership Player of the Year award this afternoon. There is a fair chance some Celtic players may make the shortlist. It is the latest instalment of a tradition that dates back to 1978 when Derek Johnstone was the first to be recognised by his peers for a stellar, treble-winning season in which he scored 38 goals. That was enough to earn him a seat on the plane to the World Cup but, remarkably, not enough to see him start any of Scotland’s three matches in Argentina.

Johnstone did the awards double that year, collecting the Scottish Football Writers Association bauble, too. The latter award predates its PFA counterpart by 13 years and it is instructive to note the many subsequent seasons when the players and the press have plumped for different winners of their main award. “It’s all about opinions,” as Johnstone himself has noted on the radio once or twice over the years.

Footballers can often be a capricious bunch, a fact reflected by some of the names they have chosen as their player of the year. It has not always just been the most obvious candidate from either Rangers or Celtic every season, although since 1990 only one non-Old Firm man has got the nod. That was Motherwell’s Michael Higdon in 2013, the player celebrating his success so exuberantly that he ended up spending the night in a police cell. Interestingly, the football writers gave their award that year to Leigh Griffiths, then of Hibernian, a rather more circumspect, shy and retiring figure. The winner announced this Sunday at the PFA dinner will surely be warned to be on their best behaviour.

In the early days, however, the players’ award reflected the diversification prevalent in the Scottish game when Aberdeen and Dundee United, in particular, were threatening the natural order of things. Mark McGhee took the award in 1981, Willie Miller was the players’ choice in 1984, while Richard Gough, in his final year at Tannadice, was bestowed with that honour in 1986.

Some of the awards from the professionals have been more curious. When Celtic won their second consecutive league title in 1982, the gong went not to one of the players who had delivered that triumph but to Sandy Clark, part of an Airdrieonians side that had finished bottom of the table and were relegated having won just five games all season.

There was a similarly unorthodox choice three years later. Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen were the champions but the players again looked to the other end of the table to select their star man. Jim Duffy was their choice despite being a part of a Morton side that had conceded a century of goals on their way to dropping out of the division. If anything, however, the respective failures of their teams in those years make Clark and Duffy’s performances more rather than less impressive. After all, it is much harder to be a stand-out in a poor team than it is a successful one.

The awards have also reflected the growing influence of foreign players in our game. After 11 successive Scots, the professionals made Aberdeen goalkeeper Theo Snelders the first outsider to collect the main prize in 1989. There has been a largely international flavour to subsequent awards, with 10 Scots honoured compared to 18 from England and beyond. Perhaps surprisingly, Henrik Larsson remains the only player to have won the award more than once.

PFA Scotland will also announce the shortlist for the Young Player of the Year award today and, unlike its SFWA equivalent, the candidates do not need to be Scottish. Interestingly, a look through the list of past winners suggests most players have a decent eye for potential given how many of their youthful peers went on to enjoy successful and long careers.

The first winner back in 1978 was Dundee United’s Graeme Payne and a string of illustrious names have since followed including Paul McStay, John Robertson, Stiliyan Petrov and James McFadden. Interestingly, you have to go back to 1990 and Scott Crabbe to find the last winner who didn’t go on to win at least one senior cap for their country. Last year’s winner Kieran Tierney has already achieved that accolade and ought to be among the favourites again when this year’s shortlist is announced.

PFA Scotland Player of the Year award previous winners:

1978: Derek Johnstone

1979: Paul Hegarty

1980: Davie Provan

1981: Mark McGhee

1982: Sandy Clark

1983: Charlie Nicholas

1984: Willie Miller

1985: Jim Duffy

1986: Richard Gough

1987: Brian McClair

1988: Paul McStay

1989: Theo Snelders

1990: Jim Bett

1991: Paul Elliott

1992: Ally McCoist

1993: Andy Goram

1994: Mark Hateley

1995: Brian Laudrup

1996: Paul Gascoigne

1997: Paolo di Canio

1998: Jackie McNamara

1999: Henrik Larsson

2000: Mark Viduka

2001: Henrik Larsson

2002: Lorenzo Amoruso

2003: Barry Ferguson

2004: Chris Sutton

2005: Fernando Ricksen/John Hartson (shared)

2006: Shaun Maloney

2007: Shunsuke Nakamura

2008: Aiden McGeady

2009: Scott Brown

2010: Steven Davis

2011: Emilio Izaguirre

2012: Charlie Mulgrew

2013: Michael Higdon

2014: Kris Commons

2015: Stefan Johansen

2016: Leigh Griffiths