Debut: 1-1 draw vs Watford, November 30th 1985
League Record: 74 games (+5 as sub), 9 goals
Sold to: Leicester City (£100,000), December 1990
At the start of his career, Colin Gibson played at left back in the Aston Villa team that won the 1981 League Championship using only 14 players. Sadly for him, injuries meant he missed the greatest night in the club’s history when they beat Bayern Munich 1-0 to win the 1982 European Cup.
By 1985, however, Villa were a team in serious decline (they would be relegated in 1987) and a move to United must have seemed a good one. At the time, we were showing signs of struggle after the ten game winning streak at the start of the season and Gibson, initially, added some impetus – scoring the winning goal against Birmingham to keep United top of the league at the turn of the year.
From reading Andy Mitten’s We’re the Famous Man United, the other players revelled in Gibson’s somewhat gullible nature. On a post-season trip in 1987, the players enjoyed Coventry’s surprise 3-2 win over Spurs in the FA Cup final. All except Gibson, that is, who slagged off their left-back Greg Downes for no apparent reason. The other players convinced the receptionist to run a fake “newswire” story that Downes had been called up to the England squad, leaving Gibson (who would hector Bryan Robson to convince national team boss Bobby Robson to call him up too) distraught to the point he was unable to eat his dinner.
Ferguson initially seemed to be a fan of Gibson, generally preferring him to the aging Arthur Albiston at left back or giving him the nod ahead of Jesper Olsen further up the wing, but serious injury struck in the summer of 1989 and he never got a decent run in the team again. He made a comeback of sorts in the Spring of 1990, scoring a cracking goal at Southampton and playing in the first semi-final game against Oldham, where he set up a goal. However, Ferguson reverted Lee Martin to left back for the replay and Gibson never played for us again. A short loan spell at Port Vale the next season preceded a move back to the Midlands with Leicester City.
Going on what I've heard from older fans, he was never a big favourite amongst the crowd either. Perhaps he signed at the wrong time and was associated with the failures of the last months of the Atkinson era. Personally, I only vaguely remember him in a red shirt, hence I have little or none of the malice towards him that I've heard - the term "the Gibson twins" (referring to him and non-relation Terry) being often followed by rolling of eyes.
I remember watching the 1993 play-off final between Swindon Town and Leicester and raising an eyebrow when his name cropped up amongst the subs. He was on the losing side, but featured again in the same event the next year, this time starting and being on the winning side.
Apparently, the day after this he was released on a free transfer. That’s gratitude for you!
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