Gary Gardner enjoyed an excellent loan spell with Nottingham Forest last season – but he’s struggling for opportunities at Aston Villa.
After rising through Aston Villa’s academy system, it’s ironic that Midlands-born midfielder Gary Gardner looked more at home on loan at Nottingham Forest, Birmingham Mail.
The now-24-year-old spent half a year at the City Ground last season and fostered an excellent relationship with the Forest supporters over a 20 game spell. The odd wondergoal certainly helped his cause.
And Forest coach Paul Williams admitted that the club would have been keen for him to stay beyond the end of the season.
“Gary does have an affinity with the Forest fans,” Williams said in quotes reported by the Birmingham Mail. “But his parent club are also going to be in the same division as us next season, so it is hard to say where that might leave us.”
However, after a difficult season at Villa Park comprising of just 16 Championship starts, you wonder whether a permanent move would have benefitted all parties.
Since the January arrivals of Henri Lansbury and Connor Hourihane, Gardner has been shunted further down the pecking order. Furthermore, Birkir Bjarnason is closing in on a return from injury and youngster Jordan Lyden continues to make good progress in the reserves.
Therefore, despite only inking a new four-and-a-half year deal in October, days after netting an equaliser in the Midlands derby against Birmingham City, Gardner is facing an uncertain future at Villa.
Since the turn of the year, he’s only completed 90 minutes once.
And though there have been two different managers at the helm since Gardner’s loan at Forest came to an end last summer, new boss Mark Warburton could enhance his standing among the supporters by bringing the midfielder back to the City Ground.
Chris Cohen and David Vaughan have been in superb form in recent weeks but, with a combined age of 64 and with their contracts expiring in the summer, Forest need a long-term replacement.
And Gardner has already aced his audition.
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