Nottingham Forest have ‘no claim’ against Tottenham amid Gibbs-White transfer chaos
Tottenham will be confident in their position on Morgan Gibbs-White’s prospective transfer from Nottingham Forest to North London.
The England international looked set for a move to Spurs this summer, before the Tricky Trees claimed knowledge of the 25-year-old’s release clause had been obtained illegally.
Since the deal stalled out on 10 July, there have been few developments in the deal and the former Wolves midfielder was in action for Forest on 19 July in a 0-0 draw with AS Monaco.
However, Pete O’Rourke told Football Insider exclusively that Tottenham are still likely to secure Gibbs-White’s signature, despite the delays.
Finance expert Stefan Borson also told Football Insider exclusively that despite their sense of injustice, Forest have “no claims” against Tottenham, since there had been no loss of earnings before a move has materialised and the Nottingham-based side would have a very difficult time proving there had been any rules broken.
Tottenham believe Gibbs-White can leave
Borson told Football Insider that, alongside Forest’s case being hard to prove, Spurs will actually believe the midfielder should be free to negotiate an exit after triggering his exit clause.
Man City’s former financial adviser explained previously that Tottenham will likely pay a little extra to finalise a deal for Gibbs-White.
Borson also gave his thoughts on the conflicting reports about Forest filing a complaint to the Premier League, and he stated it was unlikely that it had actually happened.
He said: “There’s two bits of press on it. One was in The Times that said that the formal complaint had been made, which is a big deal. And then the Sky one then saying it’s completely wrong and actually no formal complaint has been made. And I think because the Sky story came afterwards, you have to assume that actually that’s right and that no formal complaint has been made.
“If a formal complaint was made by Nottingham Forest, it can go one of two ways. Either they can ask the Premier League to investigate a breach of the Premier League rules, and the Premier League would be obliged to investigate it, especially in the scenario where, on the face of it, Spurs have done it.
“If the Premier League believed that they had done it, that would end up with a charge. And the potential consequences of a charge would be a disciplinary and all of the possible sanctions that come from that.
“The other possibility is that Nottingham Forest could commence an arbitration against Spurs and seek damages for the breach that’s occurred. Now that’s clearly a difficult thing to both prove that they breached, and induced the breach of contracts, but also to show actual loss.
“So, at this point, and if they do not sell him to Tottenham for £60m, what is their loss? At the moment, they have no loss and therefore they have no claim.
“So that’s if it went down the formal route and if it’s gone through the informal route, and they just sent them a warning letter to say, we think that you’ve induced our player to breach his contract via a breach of the confidentiality clause, then it’s not really a big deal at all because the letter is just a shot across the bows. I mean, it has no power.
“And then you’re into the realm of what do Spurs do in terms of the player? And I think Spurs’ position, probably as we sit here now, is to say, we have triggered the release clause and therefore we believe that under the terms of the contract, the player should be available to leave.”
Nottingham Forest given boost in Jacob Ramsey pursuit
With Gibbs-White’s future looking likely to be in North London, the Tricky Trees find themselves in need of a replacement for their star man.
O’Rourke exclusively told Football Insider that Forest have been told an offer of £50m will be accepted for Jacob Ramsey by Aston Villa.
The Villains find themselves in a precarious financial situation after failing UEFA’s financial rules and being hit with a fine of £9.5m [Sky Sports], and the threat of further punishments.
Villa need to make improvements to their side this summer, and Ramsey’s sale would be registered as pure profit from an accounting sense, as the left-winger came through the academy.