Yep, Gardner got completely undue stick at times. Whilst he’s no world beater and he does have a habit of making over-complicating things, he’s a decent enough player at this level and as has been noted earlier on, he was often left doing the job of two.
I think he can be a decent asset at this level and would be interested to see him under Scholes. That said, I wouldn’t be rushing to give him a long term deal especially if he was wanting out before he got injured.