Tottenham activate £60M release clause to hijack Manchester City’s pursuit of key target | OneFootball

Morgan Gibbs-White is set to join Tottenham after the activation of a £60 million release clause entered into the Nottingham Forest midfielder’s contract, as per several reports.

Manchester City had identified Gibbs-White as an ideal candidate to replace Kevin De Bruyne, who was not offered a new deal as the Belgian approached the end of his contract at the Etihad Stadium and has since joined Napoli on a free transfer.

Gibbs-White, 25, was understood to be tempted by the prospect of joining forces with Pep Guardiola and playing alongside good friend and fellow England international Phil Foden – as Manchester City planned for life beyond long-serving De Bruyne.

City have already added Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders to the attacking spaces of their midfield in this transfer window, with newly-appointed director of football Hugo Viana wasting no time to lay down a marker after replacing Txiki Begiristain.

After recording a Round of 16 finish at the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States in June, Manchester City’s first-team stars have been given until the July 28 to rest and recover before reporting back for pre-season – after a long-drawn and disappointing 2024-25 campaign.

Viana and co are conducting a thorough audit of Guardiola’s squad and are expected to trim the wage bill between now and the closing of the transfer window on September 1 – as Manchester City look to rebuild a winning side to challenge on all fronts in the seasons to come.

Guardiola penned a new deal in the fall of 2024 and has taken it upon himself to get Manchester City back where they belong in terms of challenging for titles after enduring the most difficult year of his managerial career last season.

After securing the arrival(s) of Cherki, Reijnders – as well as Marcus Bettinelli and Rayan Ait-Nouri, there has been an expectation of the signing of a new right-back whilst Manchester City assess offers for Ilkay Gundogan and consider whether they need to strengthen their attacking midfield roster beyond Cherki and Reijnders.

Several reports have come out on Thursday evening that confirmed that in a last-minute, dramatic turn of events, Tottenham Hotspur have now won the race to sign Gibbs-White after agreeing to activate the Englishman’s £60 million Nottingham Forest release clause.

Telegraph Sport were the first to report on the above, with transfer insiders Fabrizio Romano and The Athletic’s David Ornstein subsequently confirming that Gibbs-White will undergo his Tottenham medical on Friday before a transfer is confirmed and made official.

Manchester City’s trail of Gibbs-White appeared to have gone cold in the last month as club bosses felt Forest’s reported £70 million valuation of the midfielder was above and beyond what they were willing to spend as part of their ongoing revamp.

However, Tottenham have swooped in and secured the arrival of a key transfer target for newly-appointed manager Thomas Frank, who is reported to have been keen on adding Gibbs-White to his ranks during his time at Brentford, whom he left to replace Ange Postecoglou as Spurs boss earlier this summer.