Aston Villa could reportedly hand Ben Gibson a fresh start in the Premier League after a disastrous season at Burnley.
With the benefit of hindsight, you have to wonder whether Ben Gibson would roll back the clock.
A boyhood Middlesbrough fan who rose through the ranks to captain the North East outfit, the talented centre-back was never going to leave the Riverside for just any club. So he must have felt that Burnley were the ideal fit when he bid an emotional farewell to Boro in the summer of 2018, moving to Turf Moor for a club-record £15 million.
He surely couldn’t have imagined just how bad things would go under Sean Dyche.
Gibson ended the 2018/19 campaign with just 63 minutes of Premier League football under his belt and a single appearance – a 5-1 home defeat to Everton on Boxing Day. A hernia problem didn’t help matters but, even when fully fit, he never looked like ousting Ben Mee or James Tarkowski from Burnley’s starting XI.
Now, according to the TEAMtalk, Gibson isn’t willing to give up on his Premier League dream and would therefore spurn a move to Sheffield Wednesday. But Aston Villa could offer him the fresh start he is dreaming for with Burnley telling the former England call-up that he is free to leave.
Though surely there are better options out there than a £15 million defender who has just endured the worst season of his career. In fact, Aston Villa have, and continue to be, linked with centre-halves who would surely represent a more sensible addition.
Tyrone Mings has already proven himself in claret and blue after a superb loan spell at Villa Park in the second half of last season while the likes of Lewis Dunk, who is a target according to The Sun, has been one of the Premier League’s most reliable defenders during a fabulous two-year spell in the top flight with Brighton.
Gibson should perhaps be nothing more than a last-resort. And this alone shows how far he’s fallen in the last 12 months.
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