Gary Gardner

http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~3848084,00.html

Gardner delight after penning new two-year Villa deal



Gary Gardner has agreed a new two-year deal to June 2016.

The 21-year-old midfield player has endured and overcome serious knee injuries in recent seasons and at his lowest ebb it was his passion for the Club and his desire to play himself into a mainstay of the team which sustained him.

Having joined the Academy as a six-year-old, he had no hesitation in accepting the offer to extend his Villa career and is determined to make a telling breakthrough in the 2014-15 season.

"For me, it shows how much the Club cares about me and sees me as a central player in the future," he said.

"The manager and other people at the Club believe in me and know what I'm capable of. I want to be a big player for the team next season and I'm going to work as hard as I possibly can to demonstrate the potential they see in me.

"Obviously, it's been a frustrating two or so years for me. I injured my knee, the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), and I tried to get back too quick, which actually set me back a few months.

"I went to Sheffield Wednesday last season on loan, played through a foot injury and made it worse, so that was another setback.

"But that's the type of lad I am. I really want to do well here. This is my team, it's a brilliant football club and playing for Villa has always been my dream.

"Even when I was injured or when I just haven't been in the squad, I go to the games, even the away games and soak it all in, sitting with the away fans and kicking every ball for the team.

"I'm still young but I want to establish myself and show everybody what I can do.

"With the England U21s, I've experienced international football and it's three years ago now since I made my Villa debut, so it's up to me now to work my way into the team again and stay there."

Gardner's debut came in the New Years' Eve victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in 2011.

He also captained the Villa U19 side in the NextGen competition in 2011 and scored six goals, including a hat-trick against Ajax at Villa Park, to finish joint second highest goalscorer in the tournament.

His Villa career has been interrupted twice by serious knee injuries but he has overcome both and completed spells at Championship clubs Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry.

He has started five games for Villa and made 11 more appearances from the bench, his most recent on the final day of the 2012-13 season against Wigan.

He has represented England at several levels, making five appearances for England U21s and scoring twice.

Whilst he's never justified (in my opinion) the hype he has had, I think this is a good move. After a couple of injury-hit seasons we should give him more of a chance or at least a long spell out on loan to aid his development. He's only 21 after all.

glad we've given him the chance - hopefully he can put the injuries behind him now. needs to look at players like Delph and Aaron Ramsey. both also had serious injuries at same sort of age as Gardner but have now really pushed on..

Surprised Gardner has stayed and albrighton gone - I expected it to be the other way around.

Eastie wrote:Surprised Gardner has stayed and albrighton gone - I expected it to be the other way around.

I suspect Albrighton would be on a lot more money, as he was fairly established in first team when he got his last contract. Gardner has only ever been on fringes & indeed with his injury problems this contract might be on reduced terms.

also there's the question of interest elsewhere. Albrighton may well have been offered something by Villa, but has better offers from Leicester/Everton/whoever. whereas I very much doubt other clubs in Premier League would take a risk on Gardner.

If I was him I'd look at Delph as my, "Well he looked done for but he's turned out just fine, I can do that too" motivation/inspiration

That's a good point. Not least because Fab also had his injury problems at the same age.

Think this guy has a lot of potential. A rare piece of good news.

Good news. Hopefully he can stay injury free from now on and reach his potential. Wasn't Rafa rumoured to be very interested in taking him to Inter when he was there?!?!

I am delighted at this news. Gary has had cruel luck with injuries. The club must be pleased with the progress he has shown following his injury. He is a down to earth bloke and I really hope that he has a great season and shows us what he can do.

I'm glad we've given Gardener a new contract. Have high hopes for him. Well, we just have to, don't we?

Hopefully he can now start to fulfill some of the early promise...

Must be showing something on the training pitch we haven't seen yet as whenever he has played he has by and large performed well below the hype.

Not sure this is a good move at all giving a two year contract to an injury prone player who hasn't shown anything when he has played.

Would have rather kept Albrighton and let Gary go.

Am I being overly sceptical to think the club would do this just to *settle* fans down following the news of the last week or so WRT takeover/Albrighton let go etc?

Don't get me wrong, i'm very glad of it, but he never seemed in Lamberts plans over the last 2 years, ever.

He is a 100% improvement on KEA. That man is robbing a living, fair play to 'im.

ellisout123 wrote:Don't get me wrong, i'm very glad of it, but he never seemed in Lamberts plans over the last 2 years, ever.

he was injured the whole of Lambert's first season and big chunks of last season. if he'd been fit I'm sure he would've got chances.

Morpheus wrote:Must be showing something on the training pitch we haven't seen yet as whenever he has played he has by and large performed well below the hype.

When he played a few games under McLeish he seemed like one of those players who was just there (a bit like KEA, in a way) rather than the new Hoddle/Gerrard/Sid or whoever he was likened to that particular week.

I think he deserved an extension, if only to give him a fair crack of the whip after some injury hit seasons. This season, if he isn't getting a chance in our first team we need to give him a full season loan to someone in the Championship. Give him first team experience to aid his development and to allow us to assess him and whether he is going to make it.

Billy McBingo wrote:

Morpheus wrote:Must be showing something on the training pitch we haven't seen yet as whenever he has played he has by and large performed well below the hype.

When he played a few games under McLeish he seemed like one of those players who was just there (a bit like KEA, in a way) rather than the new Hoddle/Gerrard/Sid or whoever he was likened to that particular week.

I think he deserved an extension, if only to give him a fair crack of the whip after some injury hit seasons. This season, if he isn't getting a chance in our first team we need to give him a full season loan to someone in the Championship. Give him first team experience to aid his development and to allow us to assess him and whether he is going to make it.

That's more than fair comment and I hope next season he proves me wrong.

He featured briefly for Brighton against Tottenham tonight.

Has 2 assists this season for them, looks to be getting a regular run in the first team there.

Do the loan terms allow us to recall him and should we recall him?

As a more physical midfielder who also has some technical ability I think a fit Gary Gardner would be better than Cleverley or Westwood (on their QPR vs Villa form).

They just don't seem to have the technical ability required of smaller stature players. Especially in a physical league like the Premier League where they are denied time and space by strong, lanky midfielders like Diame, Schneiderlin, N'Zonzi, Jedinak and their top 4 level equivalents.

Gary Gardner is a midfielder more in the lanky and strong category although admittedly at a bit of a stretch.

Play Gardner alongside Delph and Sanchez we would much stronger and combative in midfield, and better technically going forward with Delph and Gardner.

Especially with no Delph, we have zero threat from midfield, so I'd very much like to see Gardner given a chance.

Zero chance with Paul Lambert in charge though.

I'm not sure Gardner is the answer. To say I've been underwhelmed by his (limited) first team appearances would be an accurate statement after what I've heard and seen of him at lower levels.

Maybe injuries have finished him, who knows?

Having said that, I'm not sure he's NOT the answer either.

And this is where Lambert falls down. We have plenty of midfielders who are willing to play a defensive role and who will pass it sideways and backwards all day long. But, now that Delph is out, we've no one that will take players on; no one who can offer that killer pass on a consistent basis that will give the opposition back line pause for thought; no one who will bomb into the opposition box whilst their defence is busy looking after Gabby and Benteke.

And therein lies one of our biggest issues. When the opposition manager is giving his team talk, it's all about getting back quickly for the fast break and then just waiting for us to give the ball back. There's no need for the defence to have to keep an eye out for a sneaky run that will be picked out. No need to monitor our midfield for runners. No need to expect anything at all out of the ordinary.

Sanchez's first pass in a Villa top proves my point. A pass that should happen regularly in a game brought about gasps of astonishment because it's something that just isn't seen at VP any more.

Why? Because it's either been coached out of the players (and I don't believe you can devolve a natural talent and a good eye) or the team are under instruction to play very one-dimensional football.

And that's proven to be the case. There's the Plan A that everyone knows and.....that's it.

So why not take a chance on a Gardner or a Grealish? Our results can't get worse. We can't score less goals. We can't pick up less points. Lambert's reputation can't get much worse (well, except in Lerner's eyes).

Why not? Because Lambert, it seems, can only play one way. It's something he's gotten used to over the last few season and he just can't see that he now has options. We've all probably read the stories about Alex Ferguson and how he was on the team coach after the Champions league win and was already telling them that anyone who doesn't want to win it again next year can get the fuck off the bus. It's extreme, but it's a winning mentality.

Lambert doesn't have that. He's taught the players that there's a "we go again" option. And they're comfortable with that. Lambert is comfortable with that. Lerner is buying it too. I'm flummoxed as to why Roy Keane would (maybe we'll see him walk soon?).

The only people who aren't comfortable with it are the fans. But what do we matter, right?

Trotters wrote:
When the opposition manager is giving his team talk, it's all about getting back quickly for the fast break and then just waiting for us to give the ball back. There's no need for the defence to have to keep an eye out for a sneaky run that will be picked out. No need to monitor our midfield for runners. No need to expect anything at all out of the ordinary.

Straight to the heart of Villa's problem .... Trotters!

This paragraph needs to be pinned up all around BodyMoor Heath! Our predictable one dimensional shite is killing us!

Just a quick point on Gardner - one of the best things about him when I used to watch him for the reserves was his late runs into the box and getting on the end of things. His first team appearances for McLeish and Lambert have been in teams that clearly have an instruction to the midfielders NOT to run past the forwards; and even if he ignored that and bombed on anyway, how many times do we get behind the full backs, or how many worthwhile crosses do we get in? It's pathetic.

I had great expectations of Gary Gardner which unfortunately seem to be going downhill rapidly. Hard to say it but I think he is finished (although he never really started) as a premier league player. From what I have seen of him at Brighton is not good enough, I expected him to be imposing himself on the Brighton side and he just isn't, he seems to disappear! Probably his injuries have just taken too much out of him but he no longer is the possible answer for Villa.

Gary Gardner scores against Brighton! Game ends 1-1.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29860092

We don't need Delph. Flog him in the January window and bring back Gardner.

He also scored in the previous game against Wigan, a game they won 1-0.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29797381

A midfielder who scores goals and creates chances? Probably just sell him to Brighton then