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It’s been a long and quite testing first season of Premier League football for Ange Postecoglou this year at Tottenham Hotspur.
The Australian has seen his Spurs side play scintillating and toothless football in equal measure at times over the campaign.
Still, with one match left to go and Europa League football in sight, it would be fair to say he has surpassed the expectations many had of him in August, but fans and pundits alike aren’t going to be as forgiving next season.
So, with the transfer window right around the corner, he needs to make sure the club get their recruitment right, and that could involve bringing in a player to upgrade on last summer’s star signing, James Maddison.
Tottenham Hotspur transfer news
According to a recent report from Football Insider journalist Pete O’Rourke, Tottenham have recently ‘held discussions’ over a move to sign Nottingham Forest’s midfield maestro, Morgan Gibbs-White, this summer.
The report has revealed that the Midlands club may be forced to sell some of their star players in a bid to balance the books and that if the Englishman becomes available, the Lilywhites will make their move.
However, it likely won’t be as straightforward as that, as Newcastle United are also named as an interested party, and there is the small matter of the price.
According to the report, if the Tricky Trees are to sell the talented midfielder, they’ll likely do so for a fee in the region of £60m so they can make a profit on the £42.5m that they paid to sign him from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Overall, it would represent a significant investment from the north Londoners, but with Maddison’s form not particularly impressive of late and the club having few other options in that role, it’s an investment worth making.
How Morgan Gibbs-White compares to James Maddison
Now, if Daniel Levy and Co can get their man in the summer, the fact that he primarily plays as an attacking midfielder means that he’ll be in direct competition with Maddison for regular starts, and based on this season, it looks like the Forest ace would come out on top.
Gibbs-White vs Maddison | ||
---|---|---|
Players | Gibbs-White | Maddison |
Appearances | 41 | 29 |
Goals | 6 | 4 |
Assists | 10 | 8 |
All Stats via Transfermarkt |
For example, from a pure output perspective, the 24-year-old, who data analyst Ben Mattison claimed has “Tottenham written all over him”, has scored six goals and provided ten assists in his 41 games this season. In contrast, the Spurs man has racked up just four goals and eight assists in his 29 games.
Moreover, while the former Leicester City star appears to have a better games-to-goal involvement ratio, it should be noted that in his last 17 appearances, he has provided just three assists and scored only one goal. In contrast, the “sensational” Forest man, as described by journalist Josh Bunting, has scored three goals and provided seven assists in 19 games over the same period.
Moreover, not only is the former Wolves star a more reliable provider of goal involvements, but he’s also more reliably fit, as in the last three seasons, he has missed no games through injury, while the Lilywhites Coventry-born dynamo has missed 23.
Ultimately, while Maddison is clearly a talented player, his output has fallen off a cliff since his return from injury, and while Gibbs-White might not hit the same peaks, his more consistent output and cleaner injury record mean he would be the ideal midfielder for Postecoglou to build around next year.
The clinical number nine has some clear similarities to the Flying Dutchman.