Middlesbrough defender Ben Gibson has insisted he is oblivious to any clubs making a bid for him, damning various reports as false.

The 25-year-old has been heavily linked with a move away from Boro this summer, with Premier League outfits Everton and Southampton said to be keen on acquiring his services.

But the defender has played down talk of a potential exit, saying he doesn’t worry about the situation before going on to say that a lot of the rumours are false.

“It’s not something I worry about,” he said. “I have a football agent, I know the football club, I would like to think they would be honest with you if it was happening. Until that happens I am none the wiser at the minute.

“I read the papers the same as you do, I am no different to you – a lot of it’s not true, some of it might be true, but there’s a lot of things that need to happen and nothing has happened as of yet.

“I can’t (worry about the situation),” he added. “Because, one, I have seen many things written over the years and, to be honest, most of them aren’t true.

“It’s funny because you see people reading it, you see people talking about it. But, actually it’s irrelevant because half of it is not true.

“And two, there’s nothing I can affect, all I can do is play football, play to the best of my ability, get as fit as I can and that’s what you have to do in pre-season.

“There are a lot of things that need to happen for a player to move club. There has to be a team that wants him, a team that’s willing to pay the money and the club have to accept a bid before it gets anywhere near the player deciding what he wants to do anyway.

“Those three things have never happened in my career to this point and, unless anything’s happened that I’m unaware of, I’m not sure it will happen.

“So that’s out of my control, if anything gets to the point that I’m in control then I’d obviously have a decision to make but that’s certainly not happened up to now.”
[Quotes sourced via Gazette Live]