The seemingly straightforward case of an England international, a £60million release clause and Tottenham trying to sign a Nottingham Forest player has so far proved to be far more complicated.
Spurs were all set to add the signing of Morgan Gibbs-White to the £55million purchase of Mohammed Kudus from West Ham and the £5million deal for Kota Takai from Kawasaki Frontale to complete a big £120million week of transfers that had the supporters getting excited again after a slow start to the window.
Then it all went rather wrong as Forest took issue with the transfer for the 25-year-old England international and everything suddenly ground to a halt. So what exactly happened, what comes next and how will it all end? football.london takes a look at all of that and the potential outcome.
What happened?
The move for Gibbs-White came out of the blue publicly, although behind the scenes Spurs have held a long-term interest in the former Wolves man and new head coach Thomas Frank wanted him at Brentford while he was at Wolves and is known to believe the midfielder is perfect for his set-up with his creativity and energy. So the approach made sense for all parties.
Tottenham made their move and it all seemed to be accelerating quickly. However, Forest took umbrage at it all, believing an illegal approach had been made to their player without their permission and that the confidentiality of Gibbs-White's £60million release clause had been breached with suggestions that Spurs made a bid that was exactly what was required to release him.
Forest reportedly ended communications with the north London club and everything suddenly ground to a halt. Having already sold Anthony Elanga to Newcastle for £52million, Nuno Espirito Santo's side were not planning on losing the England midfielder as well this summer.
Where was Gibbs-White in all of this?
The 25-year-old was set to have a medical at Tottenham but sources on various sides of the saga claim that the player never actually ended up leaving Nottingham and going to Hotspur Way as Forest's unhappiness and that of their owner Evangelos Marinakis was made very clear to Gibbs-White and all involved.
With everything that has happened since, that's probably an important aspect because had the midfielder gone to the Spurs training ground then the whole scenario might have become far worse, especially if Forest have officially claimed they did not give permission for any advancement of the deal.
Gibbs-White was not involved in Forest's 0-0 friendly draw at Chesterfield on Saturday because he was part of the group of international players who were not returning to training until this week. The midfielder duly returned to Forest's training ground on Monday morning as expected to report for pre-season and the club made it very clear he had by popping his photo up on social media.
What have Forest done?
Forest are now believed to have lodged their legal complaint over Tottenham's approach for Gibbs-White which the Premier League will have a duty to look into.
Who is saying what?
Officially nobody. Neither Forest nor Tottenham have made any comment on the situation and when contacted by football.london, the Premier League made it clear that they would not be commenting or providing guidance on what is happening. All understandable really with the legal aspect of things. So officially we're going to wait for this to run its course.
What comes next?
Now we will see if everything gets thrashed out between the various parties to end this transfer limbo. There seems to be a sense from various sides that the deal for Gibbs-White will eventually get done but it will certainly be made more difficult and take more time because of Forest's legal complaint.
Gibbs-White has two years remaining on his contract with Forest, who were keen to get him to extend his deal. It could be that Forest attempt to get more money out of Tottenham or look for the midfielder to forgo any bonuses he might be entitled to, or simply look for the north London club to be punished for what they see as an illegal approach.
Much will come down to the legality of how that release clause was triggered and its existence, secret or not, looks likely to be the Midlands side's biggest problem.
The longer things are drawn out, the more concern Spurs fans will have of another club looking to take advantage by swooping in to end it all but Forest would in that scenario not get any more money.
Gibbs-White certainly looked set on Tottenham though to work with Thomas Frank and reunite with former Forest team-mate Brennan Johnson and England colleague Dominic Solanke.
Some Forest fans have also decided that they no longer want Gibbs-White at their club if he was keen to make the move to the Europa League winners, which might make his exit less controversial for his club at this point.
At the moment the deal is expected to go through eventually, but Forest will certainly not be making it easy for Spurs to take away another one of their key players.