‘My sources tell me’ – Nottingham Forest dressing room’s reaction to Gibbs-White’s U-turn revealed
Morgan Gibbs-White has completed a shock U-turn at Nottingham Forest following a move by Evangelos Marinakis.
The England international had looked set to move to Tottenham, after the North London club made a bid which matched the release clause in his contract.
However, Forest blocked the transfer and threatened Spurs with legal action, believing Thomas Frank’s side had obtained information about the clause illegally.
Last week (26 July), Gibbs-White penned a new three-year deal at the City Ground, ending any chance of a move away this summer.
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that Marinakis had a big part to play in convincing the 25-year-old to stay.
‘Gibbs-White signs deal after Marinakis heart-to-heart’
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Wyness insisted that Marinakis’ heart-to-heart with Gibbs-White was a big part of the reason why he chose to sign a contract extension at Forest.
As well as Tottenham, the midfielder has also been linked with Manchester City, but has now committed his future to the Trentside club.
Wyness added that Gibbs-White is still very well received in the Forest dressing room, despite the talks with Spurs.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “This has been a very interesting one that I’ve been watching very closely in this window.
“If we believe what we’re fed, Marinakis flew down to the training camp in Portugal and had a real heart-to-heart with Morgan Gibbs-White, offered him a new contract and explained to him that he was supporting Forest forever and that it was an exciting project to stay with.
“Morgan said, yeah, you’re absolutely right. This is the place I’ve decided to stay. Now that’s compared to the exciting Spurs project as well. But there is something about players getting used to a place where they’re playing well.
“My sources say he is well-received in the dressing room still. There was no backlash about the talks of him going away to Spurs. All the players understand that.
“Marinakis obviously has got some warm side as well as the very hard side that we’ve seen occasionally, and look, they’ve turned it round. I was very surprised. I really thought it was going to be a done deal.
“For Morgan Gibbs-White overall, it probably does make sense to stay where he is, if Forest are going to strengthen the team. That’s something that he will want to see, and they’ll need to keep their promise on that.
I’m expecting now that the release clause will have gone up from the £60million where it was. It will now probably be £80m, £85m at least, I would think, and he’ll be on £150,000 a week.
“So in the end, everybody’s happy apart from Spurs.”
‘Tottenham eye Jack Grealish deal’
Meanwhile, Tottenham have reportedly set their sights on a deal to sign Jack Grealish after missing out on Gibbs-White.
That is according to their former scout Mick Brown, who claims that the 29-year-old has moved up the list of targets for Frank.
Spurs are aiming to add a new attacking midfield option to their squad, but the England international’s ability to play out wide is seen as a valuable asset.
This comes after Football Insider revealed on 22 May that Grealish does not expect to remain at City and feels he has been “frozen out” by Guardiola.
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