Morgan Gibbs-White will not be signing for Tottenham Hotspur this summer.
Spurs had targeted the midfielder to be new head coach Thomas Frank’s priority signing in the No.10 role in his new system at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
And it had looked like a deal that would be completed, with Spurs seemingly activating the £60million release clause for the 25-year-old. However, Nottingham Forest threatened legal action, deeming there to have been an illegal approach for the England international and after two weeks of silence on the deal, Gibbs-White put pen to paper on a new contract to remain at the City Ground.
From the outside, looking in, it looks like two weeks of the transfer window wasted for Tottenham. That may not be the case, of course, with plenty of other work potentially going in behind the scenes on other deals.
Technical director Johan Lange likes to work quietly and effectively – although the latter was not the case in this Gibbs-White instance of course – and there could be other deals in the pipeline.
But the Gibbs-White debacle does throw up another issue for Tottenham when it comes to recruiting an alternative signing.
Tottenham wanted Gibbs-White and seemingly put all their eggs in his basket. Up until the deal for him to stay in Nottingham was concluded, Spurs remained hopeful of a deal being done.
Now, if Frank does indeed want another player to play in the No.10 role, Spurs will have to turn their attentions elsewhere.
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Eberechi Eze has been linked with a move this summer, although that all went quiet at the start of July, with football.london reporting that it was highly unlikely Spurs would make a move to sign the Crystal Palace man.
That was probably down to plans to secure Gibbs-White’s signature. But Spurs could go back in for Eze now – who is likely to cost around £65million and has been tipped to join north London rivals Arsenal.
But how would Eze feel about being second choice for Spurs this summer? Or anyone else Spurs target in that role for that matter?
It’s not like making plans and going after certain targets when they come available, this was a very public move from Tottenham because they expected to get their man.
Now they have failed to sign Gibbs-White, they will look elsewhere and players like Eze will know they are only on the wishlist because Spurs did not get a deal for someone else over the line.
That may not matter to certain players, but for some there will be slight trepidation and Lange, Frank and even Daniel Levy may have some persuading to do when it comes to new targets.
