Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White set for Tottenham medical – The Athletic – The New York Times

EPL
Nottingham Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White is set for a medical at Tottenham Hotspur.
Gibbs-White has been high on the recruitment lists of several leading clubs but Spurs are set to bolster new head coach Thomas Frank’s squad further ahead of the new season with the 25-year-old, who has a £60million release clause in his contract at the City Ground.
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Gibbs-White moved to Forest from Wolverhampton Wanderers in August 2022 and has become one of the Premier League’s most impressive players, while also earning recognition at international level for England.
Recently-appointed Spurs boss Frank is a long-term admirer of Gibbs-White and switching to north London would give him a chance to play Champions League football.
Gibbs-White was strongly considered by Manchester City heading into this transfer window, however, they ultimately favoured the acquisitions of Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders.
Gibbs-White signed a contract until June 2027 when he joined from Wolves for a fee of up to £42.5million (now $57.6m) including bonuses.
The Englishman starred for Forest in 2024-25, registering seven goals and 10 assists as Nuno Espirito Santo’s side secured a seventh-place finish in the Premier League and qualified for the Conference League next season. He has 18 goals and 28 assists in 118 matches during his three years at Forest, where he has captained the side on occasion.
Spurs, meanwhile, have already agreed a £55m deal to sign West Ham United’s Mohammed Kudus and have completed the signing of Japan international defender Kota Takai. Mathys Tel and Kevin Danso have also joined permanently following loan spells last season. They qualified for the Champions League after beating Manchester United in last season’s Europa League final.
Analysis by senior writer Danny Taylor
There is no denying the fact that, if you are a Nottingham Forest supporter, this is exceedingly worrying news.
Fresh from the news that Anthony Elanga is joining Newcastle United for £52m, most Forest fans might have been forgiven for thinking that would end any further discussion about the possibility of losing another of their other key performers.
That, however, is not the case and the prospect of losing Gibbs-White will be hard to take given his emergence as a high-calibre Premier League player, winning England recognition in the process.
Why are Spurs trying to sign him? Well, the bottom line here is that he would be an ideal wearer of the club’s colours. And the advantage for Spurs, of course, is that they can offer him Champions League football as well as a substantial pay rise.
Yes, we are talking about a side that finished 17th last season, ten places behind Forest, but this is still an exciting period for the side under Frank.
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If they can arrange a deal for Gibbs-White in addition to the one they have struck for Kudus, they have even more reason for optimism that they can re-establish himself themselves as a top-six club.
Analysis by Tottenham correspondent Jay Harris
Ange Postecoglou must be looking on with envy at the moves Spurs are making in the transfer window this summer. Last year, the only player they signed who immediately improved the starting XI was Dominic Solanke in a club-record deal worth £65m. They spent the rest of their money on talented teenagers Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert but it left their squad light in lots of areas.
It feels like they have a completely different attitude in this window under Frank. They should complete the signing of Ghana international Kudus by the end of the week and landing Gibbs-White would only make their fanbase even more optimistic about the future with Frank.
When Frank was in charge of Brentford, they were interested in signing Gibbs-White before he joined Forest. Frank mainly used a 4-2-3-1 formation at Brentford last season and Mikkel Damsgaard thrived as the No 10, recording 10 assists which was the joint-fourth best record in the league. Gibbs-White could perform a similar role for Spurs or sit slightly deeper alongside a defensive midfielder.
With the expanded version of the Champions League on the horizon, Spurs need to bulk up their squad but it is already packed with attacking talent. Gibbs-White possesses the quality to start every week but where does that leave James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski? Kudus can play on the right but operates centrally for Ghana. It would be an exciting move but some Spurs fans might argue that the priority should be sourcing an upgrade on Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur at No 6.
(Top photo: Judit Cartiel/Getty Images)

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