Gibson out with metatarsal fracture

He must be really down.

Hope he's fit and ready to go come August. I feel sorry for the lad. It's just one injury after another.

I wish him a speedy recovery.

I can't wait for this season to end.

Perhaps he can take heart from Jonathan Woodgate – one of the best centre halves I have ever seen and still making a difference at the Riverside.

I'm not willing to write him off just yet.

Nobody wants to win at this club anymore.

Gibson needs to get well, refocus for next season, and become the offensive mid we desperately need. We've seen flashes of his potential between bouts of injury. If he could only stay fit for an entire season.

It's time to cut the cord though. He simply can't stay healthy.

All this "cut the cord" stuff is pretty hypocritical when you consider the outrage over comments made by Mirallas and Lukaku's agent. Their attitude is that when the going gets tough they quit the club. We criticize them and yet take the same view when the shoes on the other foot and we've a player who is injured. Can't have it both ways, lads.

His record of recruiting central midfielders during his managerial career is not good though.

We should get 㾶-12mil for Mirallas who will have to go elsewhere for his CL footy. I don't understand this need for 3 defensive midfielders offering nothing going forward. I would prefer attacking midfielders who can defend. Before Barry, Besic and McCarthy we always had players looking to go forward. I know Distin was getting on but surely to god he couldn't have fallen below that useless Wignanite in the pecking order.

It's going to be a tough summer as Kenwright's Everton is skint so, unless we are developing our own kids, we wont be splurging out. Now we are safe from the drop, it must be time to blood some of these kids. Get them games in the side – not just small cameos.

Cabaye from PSG for ٦M?

Macca, Besic and Barkley run around a lot like headless chickens but couldn't find a telling pass to save their lives, as we saw on Saturday again.

It's an area we must address in the summer.

He must be down but it's not exactly a hard life for him on 㿔k odd a week sitting in front of the TV with his foot in a cast. Despite hardly playing, he's already set for life.

I hope he can make some appearances next season but once his contract is up in 2016, it bye-bye time. The amount of injuries this guy has had is just ridiculous – he should start doing his coaching badges as his body is obviously not up to it.

Time for him to move on. He isn't worth a squad place/wages for the time he is fit. Or its a pay as you play deal.

Gibson is a very good player but he was injury-prone at Man Utd and he's had even worse luck with us. At some point both sides will need to part ways.

He needs to get fit and get a full preseason under him and make the call then. His luck has to change at some point with the law of averages.

Don't care if he goes the whole of next season injury free. The guy has hardly barely managed to string more than 3 appearances in a row in over 3 years.

Metatarsals -
(translation: 'were first introduced at a dinner party at Jeffrey Archer's house').

I can't help but feel for a guy who has real talent and is repeatedly thwarted by injuries. His off field activities draw absolutely no interest (unlike the continually intoxicated giraffe once employed by our adorable neighbours).

Peter Reid was around Gibbo's current age when he joined us and he too had seen enough of the treatment table by then.

Gibson genuinely deserves a few seasons trouble free and if he did then I'd be certain that he'd reward us for our sticking by him.

When he did his knee I posted on here that it was time to cut him loose. Strangely I've actually changed my mind. This is just terrible luck – a metatarsal isn't an 'injury prone' type of injury, it's just appalling bad luck.

Incredibly he's still only 27 (must have had a tough paper round as a kid). He'll miss games which are largely pointless and get one last crack at a full pre-season and a decent year.

I hope to God he manages it. He's a good player and seems a decent sort.

Despite our hopes for exciting football under Martinez, the forwards he has brought to the club have been poor:

Lukaku: gets goals but vastly overpriced.
Kone: not good enough.
Deufelou: good on his day, inconsistent. He wasn't as good as people are now saying he was.
Atsu: so good he never plays him.
McGeady: the new McFadden - talented with poor decision-making.
Lennon: fast, works his socks off, not sure about his end product.

I could stomach a transitional mid-table season if we were playing good football, blooding youngsters and showing some form of pattern for the future. As it is, we've watched old men, out of form and position, playing slow, ponderous football with 1 or 2 shots per game.

I was a big supporter of Martinez last season. I liked what he was doing and the results he brought us. Not anymore. He's looked hopelessly out of his depth this season. If he stays, gets his credibility back with the players, buys some decent players, gets them fit preseason, I think I'll bang my head and wake up!

Gonna be an interesting summer.

Pretty harsh and mostly inaccurate don't you think? How does breaking a metatarsal make him a fraud? He didn't pull himself out of the squad claiming a sore knee after being cleared by the club medical staff like Balotelli did. Granted he has been often injured and may be made of glass but he has genuinely been injured.

Sad though since per some of the stat sites, he was the most accurate passer in his appearances versus QPR and Newcastle, not only on the team but in the EPL as a whole.

A real shame as he's one of my favourite players, but I think we can all agree that this should probably be the end of the road for the lad.

This broken bone is a shame for him and the team.

"Maybe it's the food he eats? A proper diet I wonder if it has been tried by him. No big deal if he loves playing that game."

Please explain this as I find it incomprehensible. ~ Thanks.

I feel sorry for him but I think we should be responsible with where we spend our wage budget!

But, his injury record apart, i'd have him in the side any day ahead of McCarthy, Barry and Besic who gives the ball away far too much and doesn't look physically strong enough for this league. Gibson is by far better than the three I mentioned; it's just a pity we haven't seen him on the pitch enough.

After this season from hell, I just havenÂ’t got any patience left for jokers like Gibson. File under Alcaraz, McGeady etc & ship out this summer. Where? Celtic, the lot of them.

For Andrew Presley (11 & 45) Gibson isn't dead unlucky, he's 'a fraud' and a 'Joker' who is lining up injuries.

And his proof for these insults?

None, no proof, not a fucking shred of evidence at all, just someone venting like a narked, red-faced toddler because he's (patently) unable to deal with the type of disappointment life sometimes throws up.

Last week McCarthy was a 'coward' (because he wasn't winning games all by himself or some nonsense), this week Gibson is a fraud because he's had terrible luck with injuries.

Pathetic.

Just think what an Arteta type player would now bring to this Everton team (if we are praising Gibson) who is not in the same league. I also hope that Gibson is fit and ready to start in August. But let's hope that he is not injured again around September. Not much good hanging on to an injury prone player. Tough, but that's football.

And how do you engineer a metatarsal fracture anyway? Do let us know, I've got a game this Sunday myself and I might not feel up to it.

Good player on the rare occasions he plays and obviously I don't wish him physical pain but he'd reached the mandatory 3 games in a row so was time for another injury.

Yeah he's unlucky. Martinez is unlucky. We're Everton, we're all unlucky.

Of what - that he's 'a fraud' or that he's extremely unlucky with injuries?

If he's a fraud, provide evidence of exactly how he has defrauded Everton and Manchester United.

Presumably, if as you're suggesting, the injuries aren't real or are somehow self-inflicted (for reasons you don't state) let's see the evidence.

As for "he'd reached the mandatory 3 games in a row so was time for another injury" - again says nothing about Gibson (other than he's dead unlucky) and everything about how you deal with disappointment.

I'll spell it out - imagine how frustrating (and wrong) it would be, if people called you a thief, yet you'd never robbed anything and there was no evidence that you'd ever robbed anything (maybe just a bit of stupid gossip).

Well your calling Gibson a fraud, yet offering no evidence of fraudulence is the same.

He's abused his position as the only centre midfielder at the club capable of playing a through ball.

The loss is to the team, me, you, our points haul this season etc. If he was rubbish nobody would care.

A fraud!

Eh?????????????????????

Congratulations!

The most desperate, pitiful, nonsensical response I've ever seen on TW.

If I forced you to walk about with a large jelly on your head, wearing nothing but your bills, I would not have made you look as dumb as you have made yourself look,

(There really should be some sort of prize.)

Gibson is a footballer (a good one, one we could really do with) who never plays football.

To some that is down to luck. I don't believe in that concept so obviously disagree.

As I said above, I'm past taking a benign view of people like this hanging around the Finch Farm treatment room on big wages. If he agrees to alter / sever his contract (I'd prefer the former) in the summer, then great. But he won't. We'll probably be too stupid to even try.

Go pay as you play and I'll happily drop the fraud allegations, Gibbo!

And in regards to altering his contract, why should he before his current one expires?

Imagines..

After linesman gives iffy offside: "He's a fucking murderer!!"

(If you ask why – "Er... um... well he's killing the right decision sort of so... er... if you've killed something... er... in effect, you're a... um sort of murderer.")

Or maybe BK will come out in support of Martinez: "Him and BK are gay, they ARE honesty God, they do bummin' and everything, swear down lid."

Etc.

I remember when players like Ball, Labone, West, Husband, Harvey, Lyons, Dobson, King, Sheedy and even Southall were injured... and were out for months. And there have been numerous others. Just as well back then, that we were not graced by Andrew's pearls of wisdom. Those players would have been frauds. Injuries happen. Get over it. Nobody is a fraud. FFS.

Little old me thinks that Andrew P must be the sole owner of Martinez's new book. "How to talk gibberish and make it sound believable'". Un-fucking-believable comments from a fellow Evertonian. And not really worth any more time.

Get fit soon, Gibbo. Me thinks that there is still an Everton career in your make up. But get fit. Please.

We all know terms like "joker" and "fraud" get thrown around. You learn to live with it?

Gibson is obviously unlucky. A broken metatarsal doesn't, on the face of things, appear to be any more than dumb luck. That said, there have been players who just seemed to cop the strangest, seemingly unrelated injuries. Young Mr Vaughan for example. Have you ever seen another player sever an artery in their ankle like he did?

But for Vaughan it wasn't just bad luck each time. His playing style contributed. Plus the fact that we're not all put together exactly the same way. Not his 'fault' but he did appear to be 'injury prone'.

With Gibson it's hard to believe there's not some common theme. Have previous injuries put extra strain on other body parts? It's it the way he trains? Is he just not made for this kind of exertion? Can one person have do much bad luck?

Pay as you play might well be an option. Gibson might decide it's what he wants. Or there might be something we can offer in exchange. A contract renewal option, greater bonuses?

The evidence / proof in what I'm saying is DG's availability or lack thereof since he signed. He a good player on reasonable money who never plays. That's the situation.

Andrew – the idea would be we'd settle on a mutually agreeable sum short of the full term of the contract so wages could be invested in someone else who can actually play for us.

Won't happen I know so yep get well soon again Gibbo.

Everton need someone to look at players like Gibson, and work out a training regime that would suit. Even if it meant very little training – remember McGrath and King. And they need to work out if Gibson is worth nurturing along... and what is causing him to be injured so much.

Also check out Oviedo, Mirallas, and Pienaar. They also only seem to last for three games. But injuries do happen, even to the fittest of footballers. Hardly makes them frauds, does it?

And what about the youngsters that Martinez refuses to play? The youngsters who perform well, when called upon, but are dropped at the first opportunity. Are they frauds, for collecting their wages? And what about Alcaraz – collecting wages for doing an impression of a footballer. Sorry, hold on, he is a fraud. You may have a point there, Andrew... only you targeted the wrong player.

Anyhow, enough of this nonsense from me. Have a nice day folks. See you all in sunny Swansea. COYBs.

Why an overreaction?

Why not the right reaction?

Clarence Darrow can desperately flail all he wants, but the fact remains, an Everton player who has unluckily suffered a lot of injuries, is called a fraud.

And why?

Because he has..er.. unluckily suffered a lot of injuries.

"Yes but maybe there's some other reason relating to fraud"

Fine, let's hear/see some sensible evidence.

(For the record, no court would accept 'what I reckon like' as evidence.)

Rafa fact: So far not one teeny, tiny, single shred of evidence has been put forward to show fraud.

You add "We all know terms like "joker" and "fraud" get thrown around. You learn to live with it?"

Three things 1) If the terms are unsubstantiated, they only get thrown around by poltroons. 2) The term 'joker' is very different to the term fraud. 3) Of course you can do as you please, but I don't 'learn to live with it'. If I see Everton players called cowards and/or frauds, I prefer to challenge those making the accusations to produce their evidence – do you think there is something unfair about that?

I hate the accusation "wind-up merchant" for devaluing reasonable alternative views but this one surely crosses the line.

According to Snods, it makes the player only feel worse about himself and the misfortune suffered:

Darron has been so unfortunate with injuries and he has no doubt been working extra hard in the gym over these past few months to get himself fit again.

After some major knee problems, Darron was fully fit again and of late had been looking a different class, so this latest set-back is really cruel.

Darron has suffered with some horrible injuries in his career but I hate the phrase "injury prone".

People said it about me but all I suffered were genuine injuries and because I know how that made me feel, I don't like hearing it said about Darron.

All this and the above from Snods is just symbolic of the acceptance of mediocre dross across all things EFC right now. BillÂ’s not a fraud either, I guess?!

That was part of my first comment on this thread, weÂ’ve all given up on winning really, havenÂ’t we. Just drifting on through like Gibson with the "unlucky, see you next season" mentality.

Erm... I don't think anyone is saying he doesn't get injured a lot.

I mean we know he gets injured a lot and I suspect the club knows and I'm fairly sure the player knows, so...

And 'iffing' til you're blue in the face isn't going to change his contract.

You know that, I know that, even Andrew knows that (despite having his back up now due to the response to his post).

Challenge it by all means but I'd say there are actual opinions worth discussing ahead of the use of embellishment.

Yeah really simple - "Hey other teams, want to by a crock who doesn't earn his wedge and isn't that good anyhow?"

(look out, wouldn't want you crushed in the stampede).

Ernie (79) - "Eugene #66. The point is that people use words like "fraud" but no-one genuinely believes him to be a fraud in the true definition if the word"

What do you mean 'the point is'?

'A fraud', hasn't got 5 different meanings, the true definition of 'a fraud' is 'a fraud'.

And if I was in any doubt as to it's meaning, when it's followed up with 'He had a stomach and/or groin strain already lined up before this latest ailment', that little doubt vanishes.

Not sure why you're going to such lengths to excuse/justify such nonsense when the poster himself went to great (but garbled) lengths to 'explain' why the player is a fraud.

If you're going to defend every player who ever had an embellished label thrown at them on the internet you'll find little time for anything else.

There's actually an interesting discussion hidden within this.

How long do you persist with an 'injury prone' player? How good do they have to be for a lengthier persistence? Where does Gibson fit in this assessment?

According to Dictionary.com it's:

Fraud
noun
1. deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.

2. a particular instance of such deceit or trickery:
mail fraud; election frauds.

3. any deception, trickery, or humbug:
That diet book is a fraud and a waste of time.

4. a person who makes deceitful pretenses; sham; poseur.

If he was a fraud, a faker, a skiver or whatever anybody else wants to throw at him surely he would just put his hand on his hamstring everytime he fancies a couple of weeks off?

And of course the irony there is he is just about the only player we have who hasn't done his hamstring in the past two seasons.

Justification and/or excuses for another poster (a relative?) including four dictionary definitions that all weaken your 'case' (ie: that somehow the meaning of fraud doesn't mean being deceitful).

You add...

"There's actually an interesting discussion hidden within this. How long do you persist with an 'injury prone' player? How good do they have to be for a lengthier persistence? Where does Gibson fit in this assessment?"

Well whether such a discussion would be interesting is subjective, but what I know, is that questions like this are simply fanciful 'what if's, given the existence of a player's contract.

How long do you persist?

Until his contract runs out, would be my guess, that's where Gibson (and every other player in the PL) fits in.

As for – "If you're going to defend every player who ever had an embellished label thrown at them on the internet, you'll find little time for anything else".

Two things:

1) Go back to your dictionary – 'embellished' means exaggerated, calling an unlucky (injury-prone) player a fraud is not embellishment – the two words have entirely different meanings (and I don't need to check a dictionary to know both).

2) Me defending one or two Everton players on an Everton supporters website, is hardly me 'defending every player on the internet' (now that's exaggeration).

The man's a fraud, fraud I tell you...

God give me strength.

I have heard that his personal sponsors, Plikingtons are thinking of pulling out.

It was you who provided a rather narrow definition of "fraud". I simply offered the full definition. Given your liking for attacking words rather than opinions I thought you might appreciate that.

Obviously I know what 'embellishment' means. Your definition is decent, but it does go further than just putting "very" before a statement. It can be the simple act of overstating something for effect.

For example, if you wanted to express your displeasure at a professional footballer who rarely plays professional football then you might label them a "fraud". You could do this without actually pressing charges.

The frustrating thing is that you surely understand the point I'm making. Someone made an over-the-top statement on the internet and you've gone off at them. Someone offers a fairly respectful defence and you attack everything but the opinion. It's all a bit petty and I have better things to do.

Anyway, you have a good day Eugene.

We need Gibson in our team. Or someone else who can do what he does. Someone who can move the ball forward quickly and intelligently and with effect. I have seen very sparse evidence that Barry, McCarthy or Besic are capable of doing this regularly hence the lack of creativity this season.

Tom Cleverly is most certainly not the answer to this or I suspect any question....

But I think there should be a limit as to what gets tossed and accepted. Calling Gibson a 'crock' is one thing because although it might not be particularly sympathetic, you can at least argue it's accurate. Calling him a fraud quite another. It implies – actually, it overtly states – that the situation is of his own deliberate making, which you surely agree is nonsense.

It might seem petty to some but I think it's more than reasonable to contest the use of that word.

Ahhhh, poor you.

Nothing 'fairly respectful' at all and I have continually attacked the opinion (you're fooling no one)

You have, for reasons best known to yourself, continued to justify and/or excuse the ludicrous idea that it's fine/justified to call an injury-prone (and consequently unlucky) player, a fraud.

"Look at what my dictionary says" "Maybe he only meant.." "Fraud could mean.."

THAT is disrespectful, as it assumes I don't know the meaning of a word in common use and assumes I can be thrown off course by badly thought-out diversionary tactics.

As Sam (90) points out (and I have spelled out) - "Calling Gibson a 'crock' is one thing because although it might not be particularly sympathetic, you can at least argue it's accurate. Calling him a fraud quite another. It implies – actually, it overtly states – that the situation is of his own deliberate making, which you surely agree is nonsense."

Simple, logical, true....yet you're reaching for your dictionary (and it's ME that's exhausting!?)

You say "It's all a bit petty and I have better things to do."

Good for you – let's hope you're off to Waterstones to buy your copy of 'How To Debate Without Resorting To Desperate Semantics'.

The concerning and bigger problem is players like Gibbo getting injured in training..............and on a Friday. Consistently over the years the top clubs have had a schedule on training where the bulk of the fitness/intense work is done early in the week, particularly if there was no midweek game. By the time they reach the day before the game, the routine was confined to a very light work out and without any competitive involvement..........so why are our players involved in a completely different routine. Anybody correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Barkley injured the day before the opening game at Leicester, Baines recently picked up an injury on a Friday and now Gibbo. Many comments have made on ToffeeWeb over the season about unnecessary injuries. It still raises the question about what is really going behind the scenes in the club's fitness/training programme.