Birmingham City have signed Gary Gardner on loan from Aston Villa for the season as confirmed by the club website.
The 26-year-old midfielder, who was capped five times by the England U21s, has always struggled to find a first-team spot at Aston Villa. While he has had more chances since their relegation, most of his experience has come at loan spells at teams such as Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Hove Albion and Coventry City. Most recently he was on loan at Barnsley but was unable to stop them from being relegated from the Sky Bet Championship.
Very few players have ever directly crossed from one team to the other in the Second City but Gardner has now joined their ranks. While many expected that he would end up leaving Aston Villa on loan again this season there was barely anyone who even considered that he would go join up with their most fierce of rivals. But that is exactly what has happened with Gardner signed a deal which will keep him at St Andrews until the end of the season.
Birmingham decided they needed a new central midfielder because David Davis was going to be out for a while and with them only being able to sign players on frees and loans, they had to think smart. But the didn’t look far as they decided to move for Gardner who is a capable player at this level. To the shock of many, Villa were willing to help their neighbors out and loan him to them for the season.
