Think I pointed this out before, but all voting takes place in March so the biting and ban won't have been a consideration at all. Tho' it does mean voting took place when Bale was on a hot streak and had scored something like ten or eleven goals in eight matches and was literally carrying Spurs to almost every win. Which arguably highlights the nonsense of voting for the award 3/4 of the way through the season, particularly given how his form has dropped off recently.
Completely agree. 23 made sense back in the 80s and 90s when players often went on loan or were eased into the side, but with modern sports medicine young players can generally come in and do well at a very young age so I think there needs to be a bit more separation in the ages.