Plymouth Argyle: Yannick Bolasie sends message to Lewis Gibson as transfer's confirmed | OneFootball

Former Plymouth Argyle winger Yannick Bolasie has sent his personal message after his ex-Everton teammate Lewis Gibson announced via Instagram that his move to Home Park was confirmed Yesterday afternoon.

The links surrounding a move to Devon for the 22-year-old began on Sunday afternoon, as the only prior links were of a potential permanent transfer to his last loan club Bristol Rovers.

Gibson follows Kaine Kesler-Hayden and Julio Pleguezuelo as the third signing ahead of Argyle's first campaign at Championship level for twelve years, adding further depth into Steven Schumacher's defensive unit.

What has Yannick Bolasie said to Lewis Gibson?

On his profile read the caption "@only1argyle Over the moon to get this done! Can't wait to see the Green Army at Home Park 💚 See you soon!".

Bolasie, who featured for Argyle 54 times, scoring on eight occasions between 2008 and 2011 responded with "My boyooooo 🙌 part of the greeen army enjoy it bro lovely place of the world 👏👏❤️".

Despite being in the same environment at Goodison Park, the duo never played a competitive match in the same team, as Bolasie and Gibson were both sent on loan away from Merseyside on numerous occasions.

What else has been said following Lewis Gibson's move to Home Park?

After confirmation of the move, Pilgrims boss Schumacher spoke to the club's official website about the qualities Gibson can add, and that the club have struck gold in their search for a left-sided central defender.

"Lewis is an outstanding young defender who has excellent pedigree having come through the youth set-ups at two Premier League clubs.

"He has also had a number of loan spells in the Football League that have developed him in to the player he is today. We are signing a ball-playing central defender who has his best years ahead of him and has so much room for development.

"Left-sided defenders are also hard to come by, especially of Lewis' quality, and we beat off a number of clubs trying to clinch his services. We are delighted he has chosen his future is with Argyle and look forward to him running out at Home Park in the Championship."

Argyle's Director of Football Neil Dewsnip has also spoken highly about Gibson, having previously worked with the 22-year-old during his time as Technical Lead for the various age groups at the England national team. Gibson represented three of those age groups, and was part of the U17's team which won the World Cup in 2017 under current Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper.

“I’d like to welcome Lewis to Argyle. I’m delighted we have managed to secure his services.

"Lewis is a player I worked with in my time as Technical Lead with the England age group sides. I have kept a close eye on his development, and I think he will perfectly suit what we are trying to achieve at Home Park.” Dewsnip continued.

How will this signing benefit Plymouth Argyle?

Gibson joins a squad which needs experience added to in order to aid their chances of maintaining Championship status. Despite being relatively young, the centre-back has played at this level before for Reading in 2020/21, albeit only on thirteen occasions.

However, in his loan spells since he has progressed massively, and his previous manager Joey Barton has also made previous claims that he has the ability to perform in the Championship.