Salford blow may be the last for gifted Gibson
HOW many active Irish internationals have a Premier League winner’s medal? Give up? This fella also has two League Cup winner’s medals, having played in both finals. Step forward Darron Gibson, although technically he’s inactive after being released by Salford City, a fourth-tier English League club owned by his ex-Manchester United mates, last Sunday. The day before, I watched Gibson on TV spreading passes around Wembley for Everton against United in the 2016 FA Cup semi-final. Four years on, he’s deemed not good enough for a club in the fourth tier of English professional football. What a tumble. Maybe someone will give him a contract, maybe not. At 32, Gibson has relatively low mileage in his legs as he has played less than 250 club games. While Gibson could point to a serious knee injury sustained on Ireland duty which cost him most of a season, his career was one of fits and starts. For all that, he has medals on his CV and a few bob in the bank. He certainly didn’t help himself with drink-fuelled antics which created the wrong sort of headlines. What might have been had alcohol not become a too-regular companion?
At his best, the Derry midfielder possessed a silken first touch, a thunderbolt shot and the ability to land a ball on a sixpence from 40 yards. I felt he was unlucky not to figure for Ireland at the finals of Euro 2012, where Giovanni Trapattoni’s weary 4-4-2 formation was exposed, especially in midfield where Glenn Whelan and Keith Andrews were overrun. A player like Gibson, who could hold the ball and relieve danger with a pin-point pass, as well as providing a set-piece threat, would have been useful in the trenches. Gibson was left on the bench for all three games, including the dead rubber against Spain when Trap ignored the players who had been in boot camp for over a month and were desperate for some action. At the time of the third substitution in Poznan, Simon Cox for Robbie Keane in the 86th minute, Gibson was so incensed, he reportedly left the bench and made for the dressing room.
I felt he had a valid point, although subsequently making himself unavailable while Trap was manager was childish. Gibson won 27 caps and scored one goal — a corker against Wales in the Nations Cup nine years ago. Greatness beckoned for Gibson but he was unable to grasp it.