darron-gibson

The T, sadly some might add, does not stand for Tiberius but news that Darron Thomas Gibson has agreed terms on a £5 million move to Steve Bruce’s Sunderland will leave not a dry eye in the house all the same. Maybe. Sort of. Well, perhaps not at all but it will bring to a close a chapter in recent Manchester United history with Gibson the subject of many a supporter debate over recent seasons.

Gibson, 24 in October, will join former Reds Frazier Campbell, Phil Bardsley and Kieran Richardson on Wearside after five years at United in which the Derry-born midfielder made less than 60 appearances for the club. Despite a thunderous shot Gibson failed to seal a consistent place in Sir Alex Ferguson’s side. With neither the technique, pace, nor all round game for the very top-level Gibson’s departure can hardly surprise, even though Ferguson has shown years of patience in the player.

Despite Gibson’s limitations the Irishman has never lacked confidence; a certain arrogance that is required of all United players. Gibson repeatedly rebuffed Irish manager Giovanni Trappatoni’s assertion that the midfielder should move to a lesser club in search of more time on the pitch.

Gibson will finally achieve his national manager’s goal at the Stadium of Light, replacing £20 million England under-21 international Jordan Henderson who departed for Liverpool in the past week. It was a week in which Gibson admitted for the first time that his future may lie elsewhere after Sunderland bid £12 million for the player together with United colleagues Wes Brown and John O’Shea.

“It wouldn’t faze me one bit to leave, all I want is what’s best for me,” admitted Gibson, who has 16 caps for the Republic of Ireland.

“So if the best thing for me is to leave and go somewhere that I’ll play every week then so be it. I haven’t sat down with Sir Alex to talk but if it comes to me not playing as much as I’d like next season I’ll have to move. I’m nearly 24. I’m going to have to go somewhere else if I don’t start playing regularly. Steve Bruce has played under Sir Alex Ferguson and I think he bases his managerial style on Sir Alex. If it came to it, I would love to play for Steve Bruce.”

Despite Paul Scholes’ retirement, and Owen Hargreaves’ departure, Gibson is behind Michael Carrick, Anderson and Darren Fletcher for a place in the United side. With Ferguson expected to bid for a leading central midfielder in the summer, Gibson is no closer to claiming a regular place in the United engine room than at any point in his Old Trafford career.

Gibson spent two seasons away from Manchester in a bid to further his chances, moving first to Royal Antwerp in Belgium and then to Wolverhampton Wanderers a year later for the 2007/8 season. Although popular in Antwerp, Gibson’s time coincided with a downturn in the club’s fortunes, with relegation to the Second Division providing a poor grounding for United’s youngsters.

Yet, as a past winner of the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award, Gibson has not fulfilled the promise of youth. There have only been fleeting moments in an Old Trafford career that has lasted longer than many expected; the 25-yard-strike, for example, against Hull City on the last day of the 2008/9 campaign, the clean hit against Bayern Munich in last season’s Champions League quarter-final.

At nearly 24 the time is clearly now right is right for both club and player to move on, with word that United is not prepared to offer Gibson an extension on a contract that runs to June 2012. Meanwhile, Gibson has seemingly accepted that his chances at Old Trafford will be forever limited, not that the old self-confidence has diminished despite the limited opportunities.

“There are four teams every year that play in the Champions League from the Premiership so there’s not many other teams in the Premiership that would have that experience within their team,” adds the Irishman.

“So even though I am young, no matter where I go, experience-wise, I’m going to be a big help. Obviously playing International and Champions League football is going to be a big help to wherever I go. So if I do leave it will be a big help to which ever team I go to and it will obviously be a big help to me too if I’m playing every week.”

Depsite Gibson’s many failings the midfielder’s departure adds £5 million to Ferguson’s supposedly hefty transfer budget while freeing up a space in the Scot’s squad. Tom Cleverley returns after a successful year at Wigan Athletic, while supporters continue to dream that a player of genuine midfield quality will arrive in the summer transfer window.

Gibson was never that.

Darron Gibson is having a bad season; possibly the worst he has had in a short professional career to date. The Irishman’s performance against Blackpool can perhaps be written off as a bad day at the office. The abysmal appearance against Southampton – a League One side – is harder to justify.

As one of Carrileros – “shuttlers” – in Manchester United’s midfield diamond, Gibson’s role is to provide box-to-box running and auxiliary width. The task requires little technique and is thus independent of one’s innate talents – many players can train themselves to run all day. Certainly, Gibson has the stamina to fulfill the task. The United midfielder just lacked the willingness.

Gibson’s laziness had already got him into trouble with his national team manager. Giovanni Trapattoni fairly argued that the midfielder must do more work off the ball. It is weird, if not downright unbelievable, that the Irishman, someone of clearly limited talent, does so little work on the pitch. When Dimitar Berbatov and Eric Cantona are reprimanded in the British Isles for “not trying,” one must wonder why pundits aren’t more critical of Gibson – surely the mundane and lazy are worse offenders.

In this sense, the Darren Fletcher argument cannot be applied to the Irish international; the Scot has always worked his socks off on the pitch. In addition to the work on the pitch, the Scottish captain is of sound personality. Take the infamous “Keanogate” incident in November 2005. Fletcher was one of the players harshly criticised by the former United captain before the move to Celtic. Instead of hitting back at Keane à la Gibson at Trapattoni, Fletcher took the criticism on board. Realising that he lacked the guile and natural talent of Paul Scholes, Fletcher set about becoming a defensive midfielder, instead of the attacking midfielder he was mooted to be in youth.

In addition to suspect temperament and work rate, Gibson is let down by his technique. The Irishman has a poor first touch for a ball-playing midfielder. Consequently, Gibson often loses the ball under pressure and very rarely gains possession in 50/50 situations – even when he wins the initial challenge.

Perhaps Gibson’s biggest weakness is his tactical naiveté. The Irishman still doesn’t have the feel for spatial aspects of football. He relies heavily on others to create space for him. Coupled with indolence, the tactical shortcomings cause the United midfielder to be far too static. This is primarily why Gibson noticeably drifts in and out of games.

Gibson does have strengths though. He is a good finisher and an excellent athlete. To take advantage of his excellent finishing, the Irishman must improve his movement. He must learn to make clever runs to create space for other midfield players, to support forwards, and to get into positions where he is able to strike at goal. The physical attributes are a great asset in this endeavor.

If Gibson works harder on the pitch and matures a little tactically, the Irish international can become essentially a more attacking version of Darren Fletcher; someone who can be deployed to do a bit of everything.

It is difficult to see Gibson making vast progress, however. He is 23 and only has about hundred appearances under his belt. Fletcher had made 50 odd more games at a comparable stage in his career and it still took the Scot two more season as a rotation player to establish his place in the first team. With Anderson ahead of him, Gibson will find it hard to play the games that he desperately needs to develop.

There is an argument to be made for Gibson staying at Old Trafford. If, for example, the Irishman will progress with a ‘good kick on the backside’ then Sir Alex Ferguson is the best in the game for that particular task. Certainly, United lacks a midfielder who can score goals from distance and Gibson can be brought on to provide that threat.

The ball is squarely in Gibson’s court though. His contract runs out in 2012 and it is up to the 23-year-old whether he stays at Old Trafford. The midfielder has done little to earn a new contract. The likelihood is that Gibson will be moved on but if the midfielder wants to be a United player makes he has to make a case on the pitch.

The next few games will be crucial – they will show whether Gibson has the bottle to ante up when it really matters.

Darron Gibson’s very public argument with Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni over his role in the national team offers plenty of insight into the midfielder’s state of mind. Gibson says that he is not ready to step down a level to get more game time. The Italian coach, meanwhile, says that the Manchester United player must add to his game.

Perhaps each is right but Gibson is the party who stands to gain most from heeding the advice of a genuine coaching legend.

Turning 23 next month, Gibson is no longer the callow youth, although the player’s limited experience to date – just 21 starts with United – tells a slightly different story. But the player has enough attributes for United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to have fought to keep the Derry-born midfielder at the club when his contract ran out last summer.

After a mediocre spell on loan at Wolverhampton Wanderers during the 2007/8 season, Gibson returned to Old Trafford making just nine starts the following season. Departure seemed inevitable until Ferguson’s late-summer intervention. Last season, 12 starts, with 23 games in all and five goals tells a story of some progression at least.

Some say it is time for the player to repay that faith at club and international level. Indeed, Gibson has reached a turning point in his career. Perhaps critical even. If the midfielder, who has built a reputation for spectacular long-range shooting, cannot make it at Old Trafford now, he may never do so.

Yet the month-long dispute with the Irish management offers some insight both into the player’s technical shortcomings and his state of mind. After all he is now on the sidelines for both club and country.

“Gibson is a young player but maybe he needs to improve more in terms of putting pressure on the opposition,” said Trappatoni’s assistant Marco Tardelli last month, who has picked the Irish team after his manager’s recent operation.

“It’s understandable why this is so because he plays for Manchester United and that’s different to playing for Stoke because you are attacking more whereas with Stoke, or a team outside the big four, you always have to put men under pressure to win possession.”

It’s a suggestion that summarises the core argument of Gibson’s critics. The midfielder, so say those most frustrated with him, is too flash, too young. Almost as if he has already bought into unjustified hype, based not on consistency of performance but isolated incidents of the spectacular that has masked failures in the mundane.

True, Gibson has already scored both the breathtaking and the important for United in his short career to date. None more so than the clean strike that put Ferguson’s team into the lead against Bayern Munich is last year’s Champions League quarter-final at Old Trafford. But the player’s inconsistent passing and first touch are matched by a casual approach that is rarely tolerated by the Old Trafford crowd.

“What I told him was that, for him, the action is not finished when he does not have the ball,” said Trapattoni yesterday.

“I told him that in this great team (United) it is not easy to play in this situation because he plays with ten great players and when these great players have the ball they play.

“He must ask for the ball, he must want the ball. That is important. He has to work to get the ball. He has fantastic vision and the long ball and he has a good personality with the ball.”

Roy Keane’s long-standing assertion that hard work comes first, then talent takes over is even more applicable to those on the team’s edge. Gibson should take heed.

Yet, Gibson’s dismissive reaction to legitimate criticism from Ireland’s team management has bordered on the arrogant and is unlikely to attract a positive response. It is not the first time that the midfielder has courted controversy.

“If Trapattoni wants me to move on from a club like Manchester United to better my game, move to somewhere like Stoke where I’ll get more games but have little chance of winning anything, then I just don’t know,” said Gibson.

“At what club, other than Manchester United, could I go to improve my game? To be honest, if he’s trying to say that I should move somewhere like Stoke City and change my game to winning tackles and not winning games, then he’s having a laugh.

“To move on from Manchester United just doesn’t make sense to me.”

It’s an attitude many United supporters will endorse. After all, they say the only way is down when a player leaves the club. But for Gibson, who is yet to make it in the game, his dismissal of advice from one of the world’s great coaches is a genuine concern.

He need not leave Old Trafford but Gibson must work harder at his game than those with greater natural talent. Perhaps Darren Fletcher’s is the example that the Irishman should follow most keenly. From pariah cruelly dubbed ‘The Scottish Player’ to, quite literally, United’s most important midfielder in 200 games.

Gibson could yet make it. Judging by recent comments, the only person holding him back is the midfielder himself.

Darron Gibson, man-of-the-moment against Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, is one of the best emerging players at the club now. Another product of Manchester United’s highly rewarding youth set up but at 22 Gibson can no longer be considered a youngster. The Irishman must now progress or end up on the United scrap heap.

Gibson is now at an age when he needs to play regularly. Despite recent goals, the player made his début more than fours years ago, just after his 18th birthday as a second-half substitute in the Carling Cup victory over Barnet, October 2005. Yet, the Derry-born midfielder has made just 19 appearances for the club in the intervening years.

Inconsistency has been a problem, despite the recent goals. Stand-out performances against Spurs and the Hammers came after a shocker at home to Besiktas in the Champions League.

“He is not playing the amount of football he would wish for but he has very good competition in Paul Scholes, Anderson, Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher,” said Sir Alex Ferguson of the player the manager singled-out for big things prior to the season’s start.

“But he has never let it get to him in terms of being unsettled. His performances in training are excellent and he comes in knowing it has been worthwhile.

“Sometimes you can’t hold a young man back and that time is approaching for Darron now. He is becoming a good, powerful midfield player.”

Gibson played every game in United’s charge to Carling Cup victory last season. It was his big opportunity and, appearing in the final, a first medal at the club.  The reward was a new three-year contract for the Republic of Ireland international that will keep Gibson at the club until 2012. The new contract is a measure of the faith Ferguson has in the player despite the irregular first team starts.

Gibson’s performance in the Champions League loss to Besiktas last month placed into question his long-term future at the club. But in scoring twice against Spurs, and again in the win over West Ham, the Irishman has offered renewed hope. What made his performance even more impressive against Spurs was that the Londoners more or less fielded their first string midfield.

“It was a good team performance following last week. We bounced back and the young lads did well,” said Gibson after the Carling Cup victory last Wednesday.

“We didn’t go out to try and prove anything. Sometimes you have bad days and today was a good day.”

Ferguson was clearly happy with Gibson’s performance, praising the player’s “tremendous power in his shooting.” Indeed, Gibson is likely to start United’s match against Aston Villa on Saturday – it will be his fourth in a row.

Now Gibson must take the next step and begin to take matches by the scruff of the neck himself. Failure to do just that is a criticism often levelled at Gibson’s major rival for a first team spot, Michael Carrick.