"Absolutely dreadful" - Burnley frustration remains over costly failed Middlesbrough transfer | OneFootball

Ben Gibson moved to Turf Moor for big money, but failed to hit the heights he had previously shown at Middlesbrough

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

It is safe to say that Ben Gibson’s spell as a Burnley player was not a great time for anybody involved.

The current Stoke City centre-back was contracted at Turf Moor between the summers of 2018 and 2021 but only featured in one league game for the Clarets, despite a hefty eight-figure transfer fee heading in Middlesbrough’s direction to bring him to the club.

The Lancashire outfit were said to have paid £15 million for the defender six years ago, before leaving him to rot on the sidelines for the majority of his time with the club, before moving to Norwich City to put everyone out of their misery.

With that in mind, the defender is the one that immediately springs to mind for Football League World’s Burnley fan pundit Nathan Rogers, when we asked him which player failed to live up to the hype after moving to Turf Moor.

Ben Gibson fails to shine as Burnley player after Middlesbrough move

After more than 200 appearances for his boyhood club, Gibson had established himself as a top defender during his time at Middlesbrough, with his solid performances earning him plenty of plaudits on Teesside.

As a result, Burnley were keen to make him theirs in the summer of 2018, with the club looking to build on the back of their remarkable seventh-placed finish in the top flight the season before.

But despite featuring in a couple of European fixtures early on, Gibson failed to make an impact in his new surroundings, with his only league appearance coming on Boxing Day, where he scored his side’s only goal in a 5-1 defeat to Everton.

That would prove to be his only appearance for the club, a single EFL Cup match the season after all he had to show for his efforts, before moving to Carrow Road on loan the following September.

With so much expected and so little delivered, it is no wonder Gibson ranks highly for Rogers in terms of players who didn’t live up to expectations, with the Clarets fan pundit confirming as much when posed the question.

He said: “For me, the biggest player who arrived with a lot of hype at the time - and was a bit of a coup for us at the time - was Ben Gibson from Middlesbrough.

“We signed him for £15 million for a centre-half, so that for us was a massive coup, a massive signing, and a massive statement signing for the club at the time.

“But I don’t know what happened; whether he fell out with the manager or it was just the wrong club at the wrong time, but his performances were just absolutely dreadful for the club.

“He was just losing his men, he was conceding easy goals, he looked really slow and sluggish.”

Ben Gibson flourishes after Burnley departure

As soon as Gibson left Turf Moor, he was back playing to his best in the EFL, with four solid seasons for Norwich City seeing him reestablish his reputation as a top operator at the heart of the backline.

After playing his part in their promotion campaign in 2020/21, the centre-back as a regular feature as the Canaries returned to the top flight, before sticking with the club until this summer, where he made the move to Stoke City.

At 31 years of age, the defender is still proving his worth in the second tier, with time only going to show that the move to Lancashire was a poor move for all parties.

Rogers continued: “I know certain insiders in the club and those within the coaching staff were not his biggest fans, so he went on a loan move, then we eventually did sell him for a pretty big loss.

“For me, Ben Gibson is probably our biggest flop that came with the biggest hype around him in recent memory.”