Just sixteen days ago, it looked like Tottenham Hotspur were going to have followed up the signing of Mohamed Kudus from West Ham United, with the signing of Morgan Gibbs-White from Nottingham Forest.
In an out of nowhere deal, it had been reported by various sources that Spurs had activated a release clause in the midfielder’s contract for £60 million pounds.
The deal looked so advanced that Fabrizio Romano even went ahead with his trademark “Here We Go”. To be fair, at that point there was nothing to suggest the deal would not go ahead.
However, Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis took issue with the approach from Spurs, deeming it “illegal” and refusing to part ways with Gibbs-White. Most people thought this would be a hold up out of spite, and that the transfer would go through sooner rather than later.
Nevertheless, things soon went very quiet. There were no to little rumours reporting “work progressing on Gibbs-White transfer” or anything similar. It all went extremely quiet, extremely quickly.
The following Saturday, the 19th of July, the 25-year old started and played 45 minutes of a friendly against Monaco. After that, Forest went on tour to Portugal, which he missed the start of for personal reasons, but then later joined up with the squad.
Having done just that, he played the second half of a friendly against fellow Premier League outfit Fulham on Saturday the 26th of July. After the game, Forest confirmed that Gibbs-White had signed a new three year deal (one year extension) at the City Ground.
Quite remarkable from start to finish. You would assume that a higher release clause has been inserted into his new contract, that or having a release clause removed altogether. Huge news for Forest either way.
Back in June, Gibbs-White was on the cover of the England match day programme as England played Senegal at the City Ground. His entrance onto the pitch caused the loudest cheer of the night. It would have been a shame for those fans if he had already played his last Forest game at that point.
Although the season did not end how Forest would have wanted, since the season finished, they have been bumped up from the Conference League to the Europa League, signed two promising players from Brazil, and seen their talisman sign a new contract instead of departing the club. Not bad.
