SOCCER:FAR FROM heeding Giovanni Trapattoni's advice and moving on to a club where he would expect to play every week, Darron Gibson hopes to have talks with Manchester United about a new deal over the summer. The 23-year-old Northerner has one year left on his current contract and insists he has "no plans to leave".

“My contract ends in 2012 and although there have been no talks at the minute I am not too worried about it,” he says. “I think that maybe in the summer we’ll sit down and have a chat about a new deal and I am confident I can get one. I have no plans to leave Manchester United.

“My main goal is to try and get to play every week and be in there as a regular, but I think things are going well for me at the minute. Obviously I want to kick on and get in the team, but I am happy enough. I am happy enough with my form, I have got no complaints,” he continued.

Despite failing to make the impact that might have been hoped for over the last year or so, Gibson has started to feature in Alex Ferguson’s line-ups with increasing regularity after a slow start to the campaign.

He has started nine games and come on in another six in all competitions, scoring once and feels it is a foundation on which he can build.

“I can see where Trapattoni’s coming from,” he says. “If I’m playing every week then he’s going to get the best out of me when I play for Ireland but at the moment I’ve got no ideas of moving anywhere else.

“I’ve got a long way to go yet to establish myself so I’m going to keep my head down and keep working hard . . . but I am enjoying it at the minute and hopefully I can kick on and play in the rest of the games that are left in the season.”

Having scored an outstanding first international goal on his last appearance for Ireland, Gibson is, barring injury, a certainty to be named by Trapattoni on Monday in his squad for the European Championship qualifier against Macedonia on March 26th and the friendly against Uruguay the following week.

More surprising would be the inclusion of Stephen Hunt, who has been sidelined by injury at Wolves of late but the midfielder insists he is in with a shout of featuring as he nears a return to full training with his club.

“I’m back running again and hopefully within the next week I’ll be back training,” he says. “After that it’s up to the gaffer (Mick McCarthy) as to when I’m involved.

“I feel as fresh as a daisy now and I’m looking forward to being back,” he continued. “If I’m not ready for Villa (on Saturday week) then there’s the international break and if I could get in that squad maybe I could get some game minutes there. That would help me with Wolves as well but it’s up to the international manager.”

Hunt’s brother Noel, who will be in action with Reading against Manchester City in the FA Cup this weekend, has expressed satisfaction with the way the Championship side silenced the sceptics by winning at Everton in the last round but admits it will be difficult to repeat the trick against one of the world’s richest clubs.

“People never gave us a chance and they all said how they were looking forward to seeing Everton in the next round, he says. “So to win was a big fist up to those people. We quietly went about our own business and hopefully we can keep doing that.

“We know City are a class act and a top four side. They’ll be challenging at the top of the Premier League come the end of the season. To go there and win will be a big ask, but we will be confident in our own ability.”.

Fearful, perhaps, of what the player might say about the city of Newcastle if he moves on at the end of his loan spell at St James’ Park, Alan Pardew has revealed he is interested in making Stephen Ireland’s stay permanent despite the midfielder not having played for the club yet because of injury.

“He’s still got time to impress me because I still think there is a chance of something permanent here for Stephen,” says the Newcastle boss. “He’s a really nice guy, he’s fitted in well. I don’t think he needs an arm around the shoulder as such, but he needs our full attention. You can’t let him drift. He needs to know he is important and he could be here.”