Morgan Gibbs-White is set to leave Nottingham Forest for an altogether different challenge.
Tottenham Hotspur are expected to sign the former Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder, who made his England debut last year during an outstanding season in the Premier League.
Spurs met a hitherto unreported release clause of £60 million and, from that point on, Gibbs-White leaving the City Ground for the capital appeared to be a formality.
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A well-trodden but treacherous road
It was reported on Friday that Forest were considering legal action over what they deemed an illegal approach from Spurs for Gibbs-White, but it seems unlikely to do anything but delay a move that, suddenly, feels inevitable.
Leaving aside the wisdom or otherwise of Forest limiting themselves to a relatively meagre profit on an exceptional player while the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules are so prominent a factor in the way clubs operate, it’s a transfer that’s not without its pitfalls for Spurs and the player.
For Spurs, it’s a financial risk. A £60 million fee and several years of wages can’t be taken lightly and there are no sure things in football. It’s a risk worth taking for a player of Gibbs-White’s ability, however, and there’s every chance they’d recoup a good chunk of their outlay even if it didn’t work out as planned.
But it’s a gamble for the 25-year-old, too. There’s an obvious logic built into the transfer market and a Champions League club making an offer for a competitive sportsperson who backs himself is almost always going to lead to a move.
Spurs finished in the lower reaches of the Premier League in their second season under manager Ange Postecoglou but are embracing their return to Europe’s top club competition and backing new boss Thomas Frank to the hilt.
With Mathys Tel’s loan converted to a permanent switch and a fee reported to be in the region of £55 million already spent on Mohammed Kudus from West Ham United, Gibbs-White is heading for north London at an exciting time.
Like Kudus, he will believe that he’s going to slot right in and be everything to Spurs that he was to Forest.
He definitely can. He probably will. But many highly rated young English players before him have taken their career-defining step up and found themselves stuck.
Home-grown player requirements are just one of the reasons behind Premier League clubs’ willingness to fork out mega money for English players.
Proven top-flight experience carries a premium and the ability to catch the eye at over-performing clubs is catnip to the drifting giants they displace.
Gibbs-White is the latest in a long line of upwardly mobile English players tempted to test themselves but he doesn’t have to look back as far as Steve Sidwell or Scott Parker or Jack Rodwell to heed the lessons of a spotty past.
No elite footballer is likely to look at the limbo of others and truly believe it will happen to them but the situations faced this summer by Jadon Sancho and Jack Grealish serve as a harsh warning to players of Gibbs-White’s impressive ilk that the grass they know is sometimes greener.
Sancho is one of the five players openly cast out by Manchester United, unloved and unwanted and unsold thus far, and his career is in a stall until he finds the right move away from Old Trafford.
Grealish has won the Premier League three times as well as a treble since moving from Aston Villa to Manchester City and his transfer can hardly be described as a failure, but he too is on the outs with his club.
City don’t want him and his wage demands, inflated by his last move, must be slamming doors in his face left, right and centre this summer. Only he can say whether it was all worth it.
The intangible dynamic that confident players can’t afford to obsess over is that sometimes a club, a situation, is just the right fit. Ambition generally takes precedence but there’s no accounting for the performance potential of comfort.
Sancho suited Borussia Dortmund. Grealish suited Villa. Their clubs suited them too and not even a colossal transfer fee and the best laid recruitment plans of wealthy clubs can guarantee the same.
Gibbs-White’s unspoken hope will be that his perfect fit is the club he’s moving to, not the one he’s leaving.
Forest put themselves in a situation where they had no say over Gibbs-White’s departure but the player, if he takes the widely expected next step, will be issuing a vote of confidence in himself, in Frank, and in Spurs to be his perfect fit.
In FourFourTwo’s opinion, Gibbs-White has all the attributes to become an essential player for Frank’s new-look Spurs and avoid the pitfalls that some English players before him have encountered.
Forest might not be so lucky. With Gibbs-White expected to leave and Anthony Elanga on the way to Newcastle United, new global head of football Edu will have his work cut out if the East Midlands club are to stabilise in the top half of the Premier League.
