Aitor Karanka has warned Ben Gibson to concentrate solely on his Middlesbrough performances and not allow himself to become distracted by mounting talk of an England senior call-up. It would be no surprise were Sam Allardyce to name the Under-21 centre-half in his next squad, particularly as Gibson is that most prized defensive commodity – a left-footer.
“Ben has to focus on his job, playing games here,” the Boro manager said. “He has an important game against Tottenham here this Saturday and it could be his worst mistake to start thinking about the national team when he’s only played five games in the Premier League. But he’s a calm lad so I think and I know he’ll remain calm and he’ll be just thinking about the game on Saturday.
“If he’s on the England list next week then we can celebrate but at the moment the main thing to think about is Tottenham. He has to help us to win games here and then he can think about the national team.”
Gibson, 23, was a cornerstone of Boro’s Championship promotion campaign last season, and Allardyce is understood to be seriously considering calling him into his squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia next month. Even if Gibson does not make the cut he could well be included for the November qualifier against Scotland and friendly against Spain.
As a former left-footed centre half himself, Karanka – once of Real Madrid and Spain – knows that Gibson holds an ace card. “Being left-footed is really important to central defenders – I used to be one of them,” he said. “There’s not too many really good left-footed central defenders around so, for that reason, it’s an advantage. But you need to be more than just left-footed so, again, we have to keep Ben calm and go step by step.”
If he clearly has misgivings about Gibson potentially being asked to run before he can walk properly, the Boro manager has no doubts about the player’s temperament. The nephew of Steve Gibson, the club’s owner, has long since overcome erroneous suggestions that his rapid progress through Boro’s academy might have had something to do with nepotism rather than ability.
“Ben Gibson is the kind of player that just looking at him, you can feel that he is a really good lad,” Karanka said. “He’s a good character and a player who wants to improve every single day and for that reason he has improved in the last two and a half years. He’s an important player for me but he has to continue improving. If one day he goes to the national team, it would be amazing for him and it would be amazing for us because he has grown up here and he’s part of this club. It would be fantastic.”
