There's no question that Morgan Gibbs-White should be a Tottenham Hotspur player by now. He had a 60 million pound release clause. He wanted to join Tottenham. Spurs paid the clause. End of discussion. And yet legal threats and an embarrassing circus has ensued, with an incensed Forest desperately trying to delay the inevitable transfer of the talented 25-year-old to N17.
It's only a matter of time before Gibbs-White joins Tottenham, but, unfortunately, instead of waiting for the most logical conclusion to proceed, it appears Spurs may be caving to the pressure and doing exactly what Forest intended by starting this ridiculous saga in the first place.
According to a report from the Daily Mail's Tom Collomosse, Tottenham are now considering submitting a second bid to Nottingham Forest in order to secure the signing of Morgan Gibbs-White and convince their potential top-five Premier League rivals to sell. They are reportedly thinking about bidding an extra five million pounds over the release clause to bring the sum for the attacking midfielder to a cool 65 million pounds, which is 10 more million than what Spurs paid to West Ham for winger Mohammed Kudus.
Tottenham will get Morgan Gibbs-White no matter what
Gibbs-White, per Collomosse, would like to have his future settled by next Monday and is, to nobody's surprise, still interested in joining Spurs. So, perhaps, Spurs submitting more money to Forest is less about rewarding a Premier League rival's foolish antics, but, rather, more about appeasing Gibbs-White and, in unusal fashion, putting a tiny bit of money where their mouth is to make Gibbs-White feel like he is valued highly by his incoming club.
The most likely and most logical outcome here is for Tottenham to stand pat and wait for the Premier League and other governing and legal bodies to step in and let this deal go through. But if Spurs have any inkling of doubts, they may see five million pounds extra as an insurance policy to end this headache so they don't lose any ground on even more important targets like a shiny new No. 6. And Forest seem like the kind of club that are desperate enough to take the money and run, which may have been their intention all along.
It's unfortunate that we are in this situation in the first place, where a club can effectively throw a temper tantrum over a release clause they agreed to themselves and then did their best to hide. It's not fair to Gibbs-White at all, and now that Forest have been found out, they want to cry foul.