The young Swiss international was an unknown quantity to most when he arrived from FC Sion last summer, but after waiting until November for a first league start he established himself at the heart of the midfield with a string of energetic performances.
The 21-year-old’s season is far from over with Euro 2008 in Switzerland & Austria looming, but looking back on his debut season in England he says:
“I came from Switzerland where the standard of the league is not the same, so I didn’t expect to be in the starting eleven at first. I just wanted to work hard and show my best, which I always try to.
“In life you need to be patient in everything you do. I was probably not ready to play, it was a new environment, a new language, I was away from my family and it was not easy, but it’s alright now. I was very proud to get into the team, very happy and this is just the beginning for me.”
One of the youngest of what was, at times, of the youngest teams in the Premier League, Gelson insists that the final position of ninth in the league table is something City can be proud of.
“There were a lot of new players and it was a new team,” he continues. “It was going to be difficult with a lot of new players to become a good team from the start. But I think we have done well (this season), you can have periods where your form is not good enough but I think the league table is right for a season where we had 11 new players come to the club.
“Some of the squad were very young, some played in England for the first time and I can see now that it’s not easy to build a team to compete for the top in the first season. You need time to work together and to get to know each other, but we can build on this because we have a lot of young players.”
And despite his busy season set to continue well into June, Gelson is already focused on what’s required domestically next term.
“I’m hoping for even better from us next season. I can promise that we’ll work hard when we come back for pre-season, and we’ll give the fans what they deserve and we’ll try our very best.”
