Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me...
A few months ago I published an article entitled “In Defence of Darron Gibson” in which rather unsurprisingly I stated how I felt the put upon midfielder had been hard done by a lot of United fans.
Such was the response I’d have probably received more favourable comments had I written an article entitled “In Defence of Paedophiles” or “Steven Gerrard, My Player of the Decade.”
It seemed United fans were pretty much agreed that the Republic of Ireland international was simply not good enough for Old Trafford -unless we were looking for ground staff -and even that was debatable according to certain comments.
Trawl through twitter, or any United forums after most games which feature Gibson and you’re likely to see words such as ‘lazy’ ‘inept’ and ‘pointless.’ It seems ‘r Darron has quickly become the player most Reds blame when things don’t go our way.
In the past whenever I’ve defended a United player be it Jonny Evans, John O’Shea, Dimitar Berbatov or Michael Carrick there’s alway been at least a minority of fans willing to back me up. With Gibbo though it seems his support has at times been practically non-existent.
Take a look at the whole ‘Gibson joins then leaves twitter’ debacle. Some of the tweets aimed at the Republic of Ireland player were quite frankly a disgrace.
Here’s a selection of tweets that made me about as proud to be a United fan as I would be if my Dad joined the BNP.
@dgibbo28 your performance on saturday was one of the worst I’ve ever seen of any utd player. scared of the ball much?’
@dgibbo28 hasn’t tweeted yet. Seems somewhat fitting after the countless anonymous performances we’ve seen from the ‘footballer’
@dgibbo28 my mate thought you were about 33 years old in the heart of midfield! Movement like pirlo!!
@dgibbo28 team do all hard work keeping possession then u hit row Z every f*ckin time!!
@dgibbo28 the biggest compliment i can give you is that you are better than Carrick
Why slagging off a player to his face- or at least his twitter account -who plays for a club we all love seemed like a good idea is beyond me but some Reds felt it was.
Fast forward to the game against Schalke and all of a sudden Gibson was no longer the pariah he had been a few weeks earlier.
In a recent article Stockport Red made a tongue in cheek comment about the midfielder being worth 50p and I was amazed- and somewhat pleased to see the amount of United fans jumping to Gibson’s defence- even if some of them may not have got the humour behind the comment. Check out the article and comments here.
It seemed a lot of United fans were impressed enough by Gibson’s sterling showing against Schalke to be willing to jump to his defence.
This made me think could Gibson be finally winning the fans over? It wasn’t just the fans who were supportive of the man formerly known as dgibbo28.
Wayne Rooney described Gibson as “class” while Antonio Valencia compared him to Andreas Iniesta!
Aristotle once wrote: “One swallow does not make a Spring” and while one good performance against a p*ss poor Schalke side is unlikely to earn Gibson any player of the season awards it may just be seen as a turning point in his United career.
Let’s not forget around ten years ago Phil Neville was considered something of a whipping boy by many United fans until a sterling performance against Arsenal seemed to turn him into a legend almost overnight. Ditto Darren Fletcher.
If Gibson does carve out a career at Old Trafford and admittedly at the moment it’s a big ‘if’ then Wednesday night’s game against Schalke may well be looked back upon as the night he began to turn the Red tide in his favour.
Am I right in thinking Gibson is beginning to convince Reds of his worth or should he still “do us all a favour and f*ck off”? Feel free to comment below.
There are always players who take time to bed into the side. I remember Gary Neville being regarded as the weak link in the side for years. As you say, Fletch was the United whipping boy for a long time and is now seen by many as the jewel of our Central Midfield. You have to trust the manager in his acessment of players. His knowledge of what it takes to be a top player is without equal. Young players as often as not need consistant runs in the team to find their game. Like many others, I would rather see a United team which has been developed, rather than purely bought in for megabucks because that is the United way. Good luck to Gibbo. I’m sure he will take his chance and make even the doubters happy
its easy to defend players just because they play for manchester united. What is difficult is to realise that maybe some players are not quite good enough. SAF likes a particular type of player, one that is disciplined, a team player and who is humble. however exceptions are made for outstanding talents. I would love Gibson to shine, sometimes he does, but consistantly I don’t know. SAF has a philosophy and he will get the players he feels fit his mould. Everyone thought are team were too weak to win the prem league, to get to the European final but SAF and his players have done it, as a squad. I say keep Gibo, but he must deliver his best performances more consistantly.
He’s shown what he can do many times this season, but people will always question if he can do it consistenly.
Well, if he’s not playing consistenly, what hope does he have of providing consistent displays.
If Gibson was to go elsehwere, you’d see him reap the rewards of constant first team football. Some of his vision and through balls throughout the season have been mouthwatering, and it’s not just against Schalke I’m talking.
But, you can’t be a red nowadays unless you’ve got a scapegoat, can you?
I agree with what you’ve said. His performances have been wishy washy at best but he does have some inspiring moments. If he is to stay at United then I hope he gets the chance to put in a few back to back performances and justify his selection. I feel really sorry for him to be honest, he comes across as a fairly regular bloke and the treatment he received was uncalled for. It’s United,the standards on the field are high, hopefully he can reach those standards consistently. It would be no harm if some of those who savaged him on Twitter had some form of standards regarding their own behaviour.
He’ll always only be a squad player for me. Yes, he has a few blinding moments of excellence, but it’s still the bits in between that let him down. If he can work on his consistency, he might make it to a regular place on the bench, but this juror is still in deliberation.
We have always had to have our scapegoats. I remember Johnny Aston as as back as the 60s (and even Kiddo for a while) through to both of the Nevilles, Fletch and so on. All of these eventually won the fans over. I am not sure that Gibson is consistent enough to do so but one thing is for sure. If he does we will soon find another scapegoat.
I can remember listening to an after match phone a few years ago, when the subject was “Is Darren Fletcher the worst player to ever put on a Utd shirt”!!
Gibbo seems to be getting the same treatment!
I say let’s give the man time to make his mark!
There is another talent who has put some dodgy performances in over the last few seasons (Mr Anderson) and nobody seems to give him stick?
I am please that Anderson has signed another contract and has been given time to prove his ability,should we not do the same for Gibbo???
to me, gibson has A LOT to prove. just like berbatov back in the days. consistency is key. we dont need him to shine once every 15 games. i believe FRUSTRATION is what motivated those fans that insulted him via twitter. i, personally cant say shit about them.