Tottenham boss Thomas Frank is reportedly a long-term admirer of a £100million-rated Premier League star, and wants to sign him after Manchester City left the table for him.
Spurs are doing their best to right the wrongs of last season. Though they won the Europa League, beating Manchester United, they also finished 17th in the Premier League.
But they’ve signed last season’s loanees Kevin Danso and Mathys Tel, as well as Croatian and Japanese defenders Luka Vuskovic and Kota Takai.
What’s more, they have reportedly agreed to sign West Ham attacker Mohammed Kudus, and are looking at another experienced Premier League player, in Morgan Gibbs-White.
That’s according to David Ornstein, who writes in The Athletic that Spurs will now focus their attention on the Nottingham Forest midfielder, given new boss Frank is a ‘long-term admirer’ of his.
Gibbs-White is high on the recruitment lists of a number of clubs, per the report, but Tottenham hope they can convince him to join them if they can agree a deal with Forest.
The lure of Champions League football could be important in getting Gibbs-White through the door.
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What’s more, Man City are no longer in the mix for the midfielder, having ‘strongly considered’ earlier in the summer, before they instead opted to sign Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki.
That should give Spurs less of a challenge than it might have been. However, early in City’s pursuit of Gibbs-White, it was suggested that Forest valued their star at £100million.
With £55million leaving the account for Kudus, and over £50million already being shelled on other players, a fee in that region could be too much for Tottenham to pay.
As such, they’ll have to hope that Forest drop their demands, but with Anthony Elanga already leaving for £52million to Newcastle United, they don’t need the money, and will surely look to do all they can not to lose another star, with one already departing.
But the report suggests the prospect of losing more top players has not dissipated with Elanga moving on, so Forest fans will know there is a danger that Gibbs-White leaving could severely impact them.
They finished seventh in the Premier League last season, and for a long time looked likely to secure Champions League football.
That they don’t have that and Newcastle and Tottenham, who want to snare their big assets, do, they might find themselves in danger of big names wanting to leave for that chance.