Season › 2021-22 › News Lewis Gibson goes out on loan to Sheffield Wednesday Michael Kenrick Saturday, 7 August, 2021 12comments | Jump to most recent Everton's young central defender, Lewis Gibson, has completed a loan move to Sheffield Wednesday for the full 2021-22 League One season. Gibson was signed by Everton for their development squad from Newcastle United in the summer of 2017 but he has thus far not yet been able to break through to the first team, with two previous loan spells on his CV already. With the centre-back position well covered in Carlo Ancelotti's squad last season, he joined Reading on loan for the 2020-21 campaign as Everton sought to get him as much first-team exposure as possible, particularly after Jarrad Branthwaite had moved ahead of him in the pecking order for the first-team squad. But it took quite some time for Gibson to get off the bench and have any involvement with the Reading first-team: he played in only 4 games through the first half of the season before picking up a quadriceps injury in December that kept him out for a month. Things didn't really get that much better with the young Everton player spending an awful lot of time on the bench and making only 7 starts in the entire campaign. Gibson has another year on his Everton contract but he has recently turned 21 and it seemed unlikely that he would be integrated into new manager Rafael Benitez's squad. Reader Comments (12) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Peter Gorman 1 Posted 07/08/2021 at 10:38:38 Hmmm, thought he was better than that and could have done with a Championship side loan. However, getting games is all that matters for him. Martin Reppion 2 Posted 07/08/2021 at 10:47:17 I remember going to watch Shane Duffy at Sc**thorpe.Against the then league leaders he ran the game and was the stand out player.A move which enables him to be a leader on the field, which all centre backs have to be, could be the making of him. Good luck to the lad. I will be taking in a Wednesday game this year. Frank Crewe 3 Posted 07/08/2021 at 11:05:15 I doubt he has any future at Everton now. This is his third loan spell and by the time it is over he'll be 22. Another Pennington. Robert Tressell 4 Posted 07/08/2021 at 11:05:34 He's not had the best of luck Peter but seems to have dropped off too. In all honesty, his career may have developed better by staying at Newcastle. We hoovered up quite a few talents the year we bought Gibson but there seemed to be no structured route to the first team for any of them.As a club we seem better placed now to help these youngsters develop. I hope so anyway.And hopefully Gibson gets back on track at Sheff Wed. Alan J Thompson 5 Posted 07/08/2021 at 11:09:24 Heaven forbid he might ever learn anything training with the four or five first team central defenders but that would probably mean difficulty finding a game for his level but Gibson apart, haven't we just moved on a few central defenders from U-21.s? Derek Knox 6 Posted 07/08/2021 at 11:12:26 Martin, we all know that ' Typhoo put the T in Britain ' ! But, who did put the ' C**t in Sc***thorpe ' ?Likewise, hope it works out for Lewis, on loan at The Owls, with him coming with back more experience, who knows what our CB situation will be like at the end of this Window, let alone next season, where he may get more chances to impress.I like the lad, and has always seemed okay when I have seen him in the U-23's or in pre-seasons. Steve Griffiths 7 Posted 07/08/2021 at 11:32:52 It's a good move for him at this stage of his career. Big club with an expectant fan base even though they have fallen on hard times currently. They will still attract crowds of >20K even in Div one & if they have a decent season may attract even bigger crowds nearer the end. So a good test of the young man's metal? I wouldn't write him off just yet as he is left footed & left footed centre half's are hard to come by. However, I agree he is behind young Jarrod in that respect & may be slightly on the small side these days at just 6ft. Maybe a change of position to left back might be best for him, certainly a good enough footballer from what I have seen of him. Steve Griffiths 8 Posted 07/08/2021 at 12:12:39 Sheff Wed live on Sky tonight 5pm away at Charlton. Would be surprised if Lewis is involved, however maybe on the bench. Dave Abrahams 9 Posted 07/08/2021 at 12:23:43 Lewis Gibson came from Newcastle very highly rated, Everton paid a good compensation fee for him which with added on bonus's could reach £5M I believe, he is now in the last year of his contract so he will be free next summer although if he moves there will be a compensation fee to pay Everton, don't know if Newcastle still have any say in the matter,Unless he has an excellent season with Sheffield Wed, I think his time at Everton is done, he has plenty of ability but has been held back by injuries, and possibly by coming to Everton which has already been stated on a previous post. John Graham 10 Posted 07/08/2021 at 12:36:13 Seems like we have trouble developing any of our younger players, even though we have paid good money and beat other clubs to their signature.This is one of many who have just not progressed as well as they should have done.I know there are quite a few clubs who seem to have the same issue, but I think it's about time we totally overhauled our youth team set up to bring it into the modern era with top class specialist coaches and not just someone who has played for Everton in the past. Just because someone has their coaching badges doesn't mean they are good at bringing on young players.Hopefully once we sort out the many issues of the first team squad and get rid of the deadwood we can concentrate on developing our younger players and have room to give them an opportunity in the first team.COYB Dale Rose 11 Posted 07/08/2021 at 17:43:07 Good luck to the lad. Our problem is that we have young players and don't play them. Give them game time and get them Premier League ready for the future. Phill Thompson 12 Posted 09/08/2021 at 18:46:22 Dale #11, it is always hard to know if he just wasn't good enough or not given the chance, but I remember fuming when Koeman played Cuco Martina at left back when I felt Gibson should have been given the chance. With the right preparation in training who knows what he might have achieved back then. Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. About these ads