Ben Gibson to fittingly reach career milestone at Middlesbrough stirring up nostalgic memories
The next time Ben Gibson plays it will mark the career milestone of 400 club games. Almost certain to play for Stoke City against Middlesbrough this afternoon, it feels rather fitting he'll achieve that feat at the Riverside.
Coming through the Boro academy, Gibson was a huge part of the last Boro squad to achieve promotion to the Premier League, later earning an ill-fated move to Burnley. He would eventually find himself at Norwich City where another promotion was added to his CV before he joined Stoke City this summer as his Canaries deal came to an end.
Of his 399 club games to date, more than half (203) came for boyhood club Boro. As he gets set for his latest Teesside return, and one which carries even more personal significance than usual for him given the appearance milestone, it stirred some nostalgic memories for the 31-year-old.
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Asked if he ever imagined he'd make it 400, Gibson told our sister site Stoke Live: “You don’t ever think about it. I remember being at Middlesbrough as a kid and I would have snapped your hand off to play one game for them. That was my dream.
"Some people say they knew they were going to be a top league player but until you’ve done it you don’t know. I was comparing myself to players who had gone through the academy before, like Jonathan Woodgate or Stewart Downing and you could never really get a true reflection of where you were and what it really took to be a professional footballer.
"To go back there, where I’ve got amazing memories, as captain of this football club is the biggest honour for me and to reach 400 games is fantastic."
While Stoke City fans will no doubt forgive the proud Teessider for the special feelings such an occasion will hold for the commanding centre-back, Boro fans will also no doubt forgive the ever-professional Potter for only really having one thing on his mind once the game gets under way.
"If I’m being honest, all I’m focused on is trying to win the game. I want to win for me, I want to win for us, and for the new manager so he can get properly underway," Gibson insisted. "I’m really excited to work with him. I know what he’ll bring. I could see when I worked with him before that he was always going to be a head coach or manager, there was always a natural progression. It wasn’t a matter of if, it was just a case of when.
"I’m delighted he’s here. The results will hopefully come quickly, hopefully they’ll come straightaway. There’s obviously going to be a huge emphasis on the different style of play and the club is going in a direction it hasn’t in the past but, whether we like it or not, the facts are that as a club we haven’t got the results or finished in the positions that its wanted to. I couldn’t be more convinced he’ll be the manager to turn that fortune around.”