Aston Villa: centre-mid Gary Gardner joins rivals Birmingham City on-loan

In want of match time, out-of-favor central midfielder Gary Gardner has turned to the dark side. The 26-year old has joined Birmingham City on a season-long loan.

The writing was on the wall fro Gary Gardner even before John McGinn’s arrival from Hibernian. Gardner, at best, was Steve Bruce’s 4th-option at defensive midfield and 6th in the No. 8 and No. 10 roles. Behind the likes of Grealish, Hourihane, McGinn, Lansbury, Bjarnason, Whelan, Jedinak, even Academy graduates O’Hare and Doyle-Hayes, Gardner simply was not going to play.

Though he was called on the bench against Hull City on Monday, that was more coincidence than anything. Mile Jedinak was ill, Bruce announced at his press conference, while John McGinn had yet been signed.

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Gardner joins our rivals Blues on a season loan, where he reunites with his brother Craig, also a former Villan. In total, this is Gary’s 7th loan spell at Villa since 2011. Having recently signed a long-term extension, the player’s contract runs through 2020. It’s difficult to envision a scenario in which Gardner really breaks through with Aston Villa, which is a far cry from his Premier League debut back in the 2011-2012 season.

That season as a teenager, Gardner went on to make 14 Premier League appearances an 16 in total. A pair of cruciate ligament injuries, the first in December 2009 severely hampered his development, and he subsequently missed major parts of two seasons.

One has to wonder what would be of Gary Gardner had that original injury not occurred. Anyway, he’s been fit for 3 years now and joins Birmingham City.

Perhaps that strengthens Blues just enough to steal points from Villa’s fellow promotion contenders.

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