Welcome to theguardian.com review of the 2018-19 Premier League season. We have nominated some contenders for this category but this is just to get the discussion going: offer your suggestions below the line …

Jamie Carragher

Historical precedent suggests not too many pundits would have held on to their jobs after creating the kind of headlines that earned Carragher a lengthy spell on the Naughty Step from Sky Sports last year and it is a measure of the exceptionally high regard in which he is held by his employers and the general public that he proved an exception to the rule. It has been argued that Carragher got off lightly due in no small part to the exceptionally easy ride he got from a normally unforgiving sports media and there is no shortage of evidence to suggest that is indeed the case. However, despite those issues, Carragher enjoys immense popularity among most of his peers for good reason, so it was no surprise to see so many colleagues provide him with the unsolicited character references which almost certainly helped to keep him in a job. It is nobody’s fault but his own that Carragher’s detractors will always have this big stick with which to beat him, but he does not appear to have let this affect the invariably entertaining, enthusiastic, incisive, humorous and occasionally downright wrong analysis which earned him such respect in the first place.

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Gary Neville

A staple on this shortlist since becoming a pundit, there was a legitimate case for omitting Neville this season on the grounds of his ongoing and increasingly obvious reluctance to hold the Glazers accountable for the mess in which Manchester United found themselves in the later stages of José Mourinho’s reign. His reluctance until recently to name and shame Ed Woodward in the culpability stakes also did him few favours, while his brown-nosing of Ole Gunnar Solskjær following United’s defeat of Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and subsequent refusal to name names when criticising unspecified players in the wake of United’s humiliation at Everton were little short of embarrassing. But the fact of the matter is that in the world of punditry, Neville remains box office and even his most banal utterances tend to generate the kind of headlines and post-match press conference queries that those of others in his field simplycannot. While there are grounds for his exclusion here, his absence would simply be far too conspicuous.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Sky Sports team of Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville, with presenter Kelly Cates. Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Alex Scott

The former Arsenal and England full-back is a broadcast natural – well informed, enthusiastic, articulate and an always cheerful counterfoil to many of her more jaded male counterparts. “It’s going to get to a stage where I’m not regarded as a female pundit,” she recently told the Guardian. “I don’t want to be regarded as a female pundit. I’m a pundit. I knew that obviously I would be getting: ‘She doesn’t deserve to be there.’ I never want anyone to think I’ve been given a helping hand. I’ve always worked for everything, whether it be on the football field or away from it.” Her presence on match-day panels will probably continue to prompt this eye-rolling, along with comments from pub bores (and even more unpleasant vitriol from internet trolls), but she continues to roll with these inevitable and dismal punches in her efforts to keep more enlightened viewers informed.

Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) We think you're brilliant, @AlexScott. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ifhzwqXXOr

Pat Nevin

The clamour for Nevin to get more television work appears to have died down and while the former Chelsea winger may (or indeed may not) have welcomed the considerably higher income and levels of exposure such employment would bring, regular radio listeners will not be sorry that the airwaves remain his particular milieu. Not everyone with an interest in football wants or can afford expensive TV subscriptions, or visits to the pub to get their regular football fix, and there are many around who consider radio commentaries to be a thoroughly enjoyable alternative, rather than a merely adequate replacement. Few get this more than Nevin, whose gentle Scottish lilt, engaging eloquence, good humour, football savvy and willingness to play fast and loose with obscure indie references make him an ideal co-commentator or guest on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily podcast. A football hipster that few people have a bad word to say about, he remains a rare breed.

Alan Shearer

The subject of no end of often-justified derision and ridicule for his understandable woodenness and inexcusable lack of effort upon beginning life as a pundit, only those who just don’t like him remain unprepared to concede that Shearer has improved immeasurably since the arrival of Gary Neville forced the old guard to visibly up their game. Last week, however, Shearer revealed a hitherto unheard talent (at least by me) for the airwaves when summarising alongside Ian Dennis on BBC Radio 5 Live’s coverage of Liverpool’s remarkable Champions League win over Barcelona. In a broadcast that ought to become a staple on the curriculum of media studies and journalism courses everywhere, it is difficult to imagine how the duo could have provided a more fitting soundtrack to what was arguably Anfield’s greatest night. Not so much a masterclass as a masterpiece, their commentary was radio gold.