Ornstein: Tottenham showing interest in Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White

More news! One day after Tottenham Hotspur reached full agreement with West Ham United for the transfer of Mohammed Kudus, David Ornstein in the Athletic is reporting that Spurs are showing a concrete interest in Nottingham Forest and England midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White.

MGW has been on the wish-list of many Tottenham supporters for a while now, and Ornstein says that Thomas Frank is a big admirer of the 25-year-old. Gibbs-White is a good all-round midfielder, but is also known for his passing, something desperately needed in Spurs’ midfield. He has good vision and is creative, using his passing as a means to unlock defenses and play in attackers, and can play wide as well as centrally. He also gets up and down the pitch well and contributes defensively. He’d be considered home-grown (but not club-trained) and is currently under contract at Forest until 2027.

Gibbs-White’s green bars don’t pop on FBRef, but that I think says more about Nottingham Forest than it does about MGW. Forest, under Nuno, typically set out to score quickly and then robustly defend the rest of the match, which impacts the statistical lines of a number of their good players.

But MGW is a good player and would be a good fit at Spurs. The issue is that he’s coveted by a lot of teams and thanks to the so-called “England tax” would likely be VERY expensive. How expensive? I really don’t know, but he moved from Wolves to Forest for £42.5m in 202 and it wouldn’t surprise me if Spurs would need to spend more than what they paid for Mohammed Kudus to bring MGW in.

But as I said a few days ago about Kudus, I am still not convinced that Spurs targeting MGW is evidence of a good recruitment system. It feels like Spurs need to be targeting players who cost between £20m-40m and who are on the upswing of their talent curve, rather than paying premium pricing for guys who are English and pretty good, but very expensive. MGW is a good player, and he might make the Leap™ on a team like Spurs, but I worry about these things.

The rumor itself is pretty thin at this point, with Ornstein saying Spurs are “turning their attention” to Gibbs-White, but he’d be a pretty fantastic addition to Spurs if they can pull off the signing. I’d say the odds are long for this one unless they decide to pull out the stops, and there’s a lot of work to be done yet. It’s cool to hear of Tottenham’s interest in MGW, certainly but after Forest just sold Anthony Elanga for £55m there are now significant barriers for any club coming for for MGW. I’m a little skeptical that this would get over the line.