Gardner Pens New Deal

Gary Gardner has today put pen to paper on a new contract that will keep him at the club until 2014.

Meakers on the forum kindly gave us the heads up after reading Gary's comments on twitbook thingy and now the club have confirmed it.

Speaking on the Official Site Gary's delight at the deal was clearly evident.

'I set my heart on playing for Villa a long time ago and words can't describe how I feel. It's unbelievable.'

At only 18, Gary has huge potential and many fans are excited about seeing him move into the first team after being nothing short of 'bloody brilliant' for the reserves prior to his unfortunate injury.

Gardner knows he's onto a good thing at the club with our Academy after seeing so many make the breakthrough before him.

'The likes of Albrighton, Clark, Bannan, Lichaj and Herd have all played in the first team this season and I remember my brother Craig, Cahill, Whittingham and Agbonlahor all breaking through from the Academy.

'This makes you realise what's possible to achieve and I want to push on and work even harder to try to follow some of those lads.'

Gary is only a couple of weeks away from returning to action now after a good recovery from his cruciate ligament injury (he's been training for the last month), and I'd be highly surprised if he doesn't make his debut before the end of the season.

For those who haven't followed Gary closely, he's been at the club since he was a six year old and whilst still being U18 captain and playing in their games, he was also a regular in the reserves last season before his injury sadly cut him down.

He had notched up 14 goals, and between the Reserves and the Academy if memory serves he went on a run of scoring a goal a game for over 10 matches.

In 2009 as well as excelling at the club, he also featured in 3 different England squads, the U17 Euro Champs, the U20 World Cup and the U19 set up.

The lad clearly has a future ahead of him, and the link above to the Official Site shows his hattrick in the FA Youth Cup tie against Rochdale from last season.

Houllier is keen admirer of him, and added.

'Gary is a young player with potential and a desire to succeed and the contract is a sign that we trust him to be a player for the future.'

Now go watch that hattrick and smile!

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