‘Man City given Gibbs-White encouragement – ready to blow whole budget’
Morgan Gibbs-White’s transfer could be the only big-money move Manchester City can afford this summer.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson said that Nottingham Forest won’t let Gibbs-White leave for cheap, despite their PSR situation.
Forest are in line for a £75million windfall if they achieve Champions League qualification this season, but failure to do so could result in a PSR squeeze which opens the door for Man City to sign Gibbs-White.
However, Robinson has told Football Insider that after City spent heavily in the January transfer window, they may have to cut their cloth accordingly this summer in order to avoid a PSR breach themselves.
Gibbs-White has emerged as a top target for Pep Guardiola in the wake of Kevin De Bruyne’s imminent departure from the Etihad Stadium, but the Forest playmaker is likely to command a fee of over £100m.
City spent £175m on Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, Nico Gonzalez and Omar Marmoush in January, and while only the latter has been a success for Pep Guardiola so far, such an outlay will limit their ability to spend this summer.
Gibbs-White move to define summer strategy at Man City
Florian Wirtz had been Guardiola’s priority over Gibbs-White to succeed De Bruyne, but with the Bayer Leverkusen star reluctant to leave Germany, City will now turn their full attention to Forest’s number 10.
Speaking on the latest Inside Track, Robinson argued that after a significant winter of spending, City’s £100m pursuit of Gibbs-White could take up the vast majority of their transfer budget this summer.
“He’s one of those, for me, that’ll get better with better players around him”, Robinson told Football Insider.
“I think it’s going to cost a lot of money, but there’s an opportunity there with Forest, with their FFP and PSR [situation].
“Manchester City obviously spent heavily in January, so they’re going to have to tow the line as well. If a big bid does come in for him, that might be the only one that City get to do in the summer, in all honesty.
“Because that’s going to cost them, that could be their whole budget in one go, but it would certainly be worth it after the recruits they got in January.”
Man City rebuild requires more than Gibbs-White
Although Gibbs-White has shown this season that he could be the player to take up De Bruyne’s mantle, City have several other areas to address on top of their efforts to replace the Belgian in Guardiola’s midfield.
Football Insider revealed last month that Phil Foden could make the step up and provide City with an in-house successor for De Bruyne, and such a move could save them over £100m on buying Gibbs-White.
After Football Insider also revealed in April that City are losing £1.3m per week on paying players currently injured, and with a crucial summer on the horizon, they may be hesitant to match the valuation for Forest’s star player.