Aston Villa are reportedly interested in signing Ben Gibson this summer as Dean Smith looks to strengthen the Premier League newbies’ defensive ranks.
Aston Villa fans can certainly be forgiven for being slightly concerned by the reports from TEAMtalk over the weekend which suggested that Dean Smith is one of the managers interested in signing Ben Gibson this summer.
Gibson endured a miserable debut season at Burnley, making just one appearance in the Premier League. He struggled with injury and it appears safe to say that his stock has fallen dramatically since his incredibly impressive spell with Middlesbrough came to an end.
Nevertheless, there are a number of clubs interested in the centre-back this summer. TEAMtalk reports that Villa are joined by four other teams in the race to land the £15 million defender – and it appears that some of the Villa Park faithful would be happy to see him head elsewhere.
But the idea of Villa helping a centre-back put his injury problems behind him before proving exactly why a club made him their record signing cannot be written off. In fact, it is situation that Smith has already dealt with during his time in charge.
During the January transfer window, Villa were the team to win the race to sign Tyrone Mings on loan from Bournemouth. Mings – who joined the Cherries for a then club-record £8 million in 2015 (via BBC Sport) – was in danger of falling completely off the radar having only made 17 league appearances for Eddie Howe’s men in four years.
However, it is probably not too far-fetched to say that his arrival made one of the biggest differences as Villa produced an incredible turnaround in form to move into play-off contention when everyone felt that they had no chance. Needless to say, everyone knows what happened next.
The uncertainty surrounding Mings’ future probably only added to the frustration when the Gibson links emerged. But it is because of the inspired loan signing that the Villa fans should perhaps not write Gibson off just yet in case Smith manages to work his magic once again.
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