Tottenham Hotspur fans were overjoyed when they heard that their beloved club were being ambitious for a change and signing Nottingham Forest star Morgan Gibbs-White just hours after inking West Ham's high-risk, high-reward right winger Mohammed Kudus. Together, Gibbs-White and Kudus could have transformed a Tottenham attack that could only help the team finish 17th in the Premier League last season.
But instead of signing MGW, Nottingham Forest dug their heels in, blocked Spurs from the move, even threatened legal action, and eventually somehow convinced Gibbs-White to renege on his word to Tottenham and sign a contract extension with Forest out of the blue.
Needless to say, Tottenham fans aren't happy at all with how that deal went down, and while some of that anger is directed internally at Daniel Levy and what looks to be another potentially bleak summer of transfer business - in juxtaposition to the activity of London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea - most of it is directed outwardly towards an increasingly maligned Nottingham Forest.
Well, Tottenham have a chance to replace Gibbs-White with a cheaper, young, and potentially even better attacking midfielder on the transfer market. Better yet, if they sign this player, it would be an act of revenge on Forest for the way the Gibbs-White transfer went down (in flames).
Tottenham could sign him for half the price of Gibbs-White
According to a report from Fabrizio Romano, despite signing Morgan Gibbs-White to a fresh contract extension, Nottingham Forest continue to show interest in Manchester City attacking midfield prospect James McAtee, who is quietly one of the best young players openly on the Premier League transfer market this summer.
Per Romano, Forest actually sent a 25 million pound transfer bid across Man City's desk, but the Citizens rejected the offer. That means McAtee is still on the open waters, and it's worth noting that Tottenham showed interest in the 22-year-old standout earlier in the tranfer window before focusing their efforts on Gibbs-White.
And what makes this all the more interesting is that initial reporting during the peak of the Gibbs-White transfer saga indicated that Forest were interested in using Gibbs-White as part of a swap deal to acquire McAtee. So if Tottenham were to sign MGW per his release clause, they would lose an important makeweight in signing McAtee.
Tottenham could instead be the ones to sign McAtee with a more competitive offer than 25 million pounds. For about half the price of Gibbs-White, Tottenham could sign someone a few years younger with more upside and use McAtee as an understudy to James Maddison in the 10 role before letting him loose in the future.