Championship outfit Nottingham Forest are reportedly keen to sign Burnley’s forgotten Premier League defender Ben Gibson.
Nottingham Forest’s potential swoop for Ben Gibson would surely get Aitor Karanka’s seal of approval.
After all, the combative centre-back enjoyed the best spell of his career so far under the former City Ground coach at Middlesbrough, captaining the north east outfit to the Premier League in 2016 before earning a shock, albeit fully deserved, England call up a few months later.
“For me I would like to keep him here for 15 years,” Karanka told Teesside Gazette in 2017.
“Gibbo has a lot of qualities. If he keeps growing in the same way that he has been growing and playing the same way he has in this team, why not (become an England regular)?” the Spaniard added in quotes reported by The Sun.
Two years have passed since Gareth Southgate made Gibson’s national team dreams come true and, in truth, the defender hasn’t got anywhere near a return to the Three Lions set-up.
He finally left his boyhood club for Burnley in a £15 million deal last summer (talkSPORT) but injuries restricted him to just a single Premier League start under Sean Dyche – a 5-1 thrashing at home to Everton on Boxing Day. Merry Christmas, Clarets fans.
And, according to the Daily Record, Nottingham Forest could offer Gibson a fresh start at the City Ground if a move for Aberdeen stopper Scott McKenna fails to materialise.
Karanka is no longer the man calling the shots at Forest but he would surely love to see a player he knows and admires kick-start his career in the home of the two-time European champions.
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