TOTTENHAM and Nottingham Forest are engaged in a battle of brinkmanship over Morgan Gibbs-White.
Forest issued legal complaints to Spurs and Gibbs-White’s representatives after the North Londoners thought they had triggered a £60million release clause to buy the England man.
The Tricky Trees are arguing they did not give permission to approach their talisman.
While they all cite breach of confidentiality of the release clause, given they did not tell Tottenham of its existence.
They are yet to take their formal complaint to the Premier League, who would be obliged to investigate any objection they receive.
The fact that Gibbs-White is still a Forest player raises the question as to whether all the conditions of the release clause have been met.
Some release clauses are not as simple as paying a specific figure.
For example, they can also have conditions involving the payment plan or stipulations involving who the buying club is.
Theoretically, if Spurs have not met those conditions but suddenly now do, it would add further weight to Forest’s breach of confidentiality argument, which could explain why the move is currently in limbo.
Having already sold key winger Anthony Elanga to Newcastle for £55m, Forest are not under financial pressure to sell and would prefer to keep Gibbs-White.
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They have been attempting to extend his contract for the last year, but it is understood that MGW and his representatives have thus far not been interested in entering negotiations.
Gibbs-White, 25, trained today as normal during Forest's pre-season.
The belief is that he is still likely to become a Spurs player this summer, but it is a matter of who blinks first between Forest and Tottenham.