The England midfielder is ready to make the big move to the Etihad after propelling Forest's incredible rise this season
Many pundits and fans have argued that this has been an unmemorable Premier League season. They can point to the fact that Liverpool effectively wrapped up the title in February and that there has barely been any drama in the battle to avoid relegation, with the three promoted teams Southampton, Leicester City and Ipswich heading straight back down. The fact that the race for Champions League qualification is the only thing of intrigue says it all, according to the naysayers.
But one team have provided an antidote to the boredom: Nottingham Forest. Having flirted with relegation in their first two seasons back in the Premier League after a 23-year absence, the Tricky Trees' campaign has been nothing short of remarkable. Back in August bookmaker BetFred predicted they would finish 18th in the table, offering odds of 11/4 of them being relegated. The idea they could challenge for the top-six was laughable, priced at 50/1. Top-four was even more outlandish, priced at 100/1.
But Nuno Espirito's side have defied the bookies and doubters all season and, in January at least, repeating Leicester City's incredible title win of 2016 was genuinely possible. In the end their title hopes proved fanciful but they are still on track to finish fourth and qualify for the Champions League for the first time since they won the competition – then known as the European Cup – in successive seasons in 1979 and 1980.
And on Sunday they are looking forward to their first FA Cup semi-final in 34 years, when they take on Manchester City. Forest's stunning success has been a collective triumph, with the likes of Nikola Milenkovic, Anthony Elanga and Chris Wood coming to the fore and having their best ever seasons. But one man has attracted more attention than anyone else ahead of Sunday's Wembley showdown: Morgan Gibbs-White, who is being tipped to sign for City in the summer as the heir to Kevin De Bruyne…
GettyIn demand
Gibbs-White is Forest's joint-third top scorer and second assist provider this season, with 12 goal contributions this season, 15 last campaign and 13 in 2022-23. He is the heartbeat of the team, the de-facto captain whenever main skipper Ryan Yates does not make the starting line-up. And when the transfer window opens he will be the club's most in-demand player.
Manchester United and Liverpool are reported to be interested in him but City are the club that need him the most as they search for a successor to De Bruyne. And given their financial muscle, recent domination of English football and the pull of Pep Guardiola, they are believed to be at the front of the queue for the 25-year-old.
Bayer Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz is still regarded as City's top choice to take the baton from De Bruyne but there are doubts about whether he wants to leave Germany and whether City will be prepared to pay more than £100 million ($133m) to get him. Gibbs-White, though, looks like their second choice and there are several reasons why he would be an even better fit at the Etihad Stadium than the 21-year-old.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesPace, power and passing
Gibbs-White has spent his whole career in England and, unlike Wirtz, would need no time to adapt to the Premier League. He would fit well into the City dressing room, too, as he is close friends with Phil Foden, who he has known since he was 16 due to playing in England's youth teams, including winning the under-17 World Cup together in 2017. Gibbs-White is godfather to two of Foden's children and is now his team-mate in the senior squad.
More importantly, he has physical attributes that few attacking midfielders of his mould possess. Take what Jamie Carragher said about him earlier this season on : "The thing I like about him, and we’ve seen the number he’s got, the number 10. What’s special about him is he’s got great pace and that’s what he gives Forest that a lot of teams don’t have with players in that position."
The player's searing pace was on display when he scored against his former club Wolves earlier this season, when he picked the ball up in his own half and hared towards the opposing area, exchanging a pass with Anthony Elanga before picking his spot in the near bottom corner. And it is a big reason why City want to buy him.
One of City's main weaknesses this season has been a lack of physical intensity, particularly in midfield since Rodri suffered a serious knee injury in September. City's midfield has been achingly slow, comprised of the likes of Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic, who turned 30 at the start of the season, and those even deeper into their 30s, such as De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan, who were 33 and 34 respectively when the campaign began.
GettyResilient and brilliant
And the coach, who became the most coveted tactician in the world due to mastering the art of positional play with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and then City, has become painfully aware of the need to adapt to a changing world. Guardiola said in January: "We didn't fight properly [for the title] because we were not in the rhythm that we should play. Today modern football is the way Bournemouth play, Newcastle play, Brighton play. Liverpool have always been like that, like we were. It's modern football. Today modern football is not positional, you have to ride the rhythm. We couldn't because we didn't have the players."
As well as needing physically sharp players, Guardiola will be prioritising those with a good track record of staying fit. He has become immensely frustrated with the likes of De Bruyne, John Stones, Jack Grealish and Nathan Ake getting repeatedly injured this season. Earlier this month he outlined how important it was to sign resilient players, saying: "You cannot perform if you aren't reliable and you are injured. The players we have, they can either play every three days or they cannot. We need to build a squad for next season."
Gibbs-White might not have the experience of playing European football every two weeks but he has an impressive record of staying fit and being available. He has missed just eight Premier League games in the last three seasons and two of those absences were due to suspension.
Getty'He's got it all'
But above all it is his ability to pick passes and score goals that make him a candidate to take over from De Bruyne. "He’s just got it all. He’s shining in that team and it suits him being the main man," said former Liverpool and England midfielder
"He’s terrific with his back to goal, great skill, can score, good passer – he takes risks with his passes and through balls. The great advantage with someone like Gibbs-White is he wants to do the work without the ball and you don’t always get attacking players who want to. He can play centre-midfield, I’ve seen him play it in a two. He is phenomenal, he’s just really unlucky at the moment that England have got so many good players in a similar position. I think he could play in any team."
Murphy had one doubt about Gibbs-White playing for a top club like City, though, when he admitted: "The only question you’d have is playing under bigger pressure and having to do it more consistently." And there has been some discussion about whether or not Gibbs-White would want to join City and be burdened with the task of replacing De Bruyne, who is arguably the club's best player ever.
