Morgan Gibbs-White and why signing him might not excite Manchester City fans

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Gauging fan sentiment is never an exact science — between the terraces and the timeline, where do you start? — but it would be fair to say that a sizeable number of Manchester City supporters are lukewarm about the idea of Morgan Gibbs-White joining their club.

The Nottingham Forest midfielder, 25, is a target for City as they look to overhaul their squad this summer and while there are some very good reasons for that, it seems that his potential arrival has not captured the imagination in the way that the possibility of signing, say, Florian Wirtz of Bayer Leverkusen or Milan’s Tijjani Reijnders has.

As The Athletic’s Thom Harris recently highlighted, Gibbs-White’s “energy, leadership and positivity on the ball has endeared him to Forest fans” and “he is a driving force behind their transitional attacking style”.

His contributions at the weekend against Leicester City — a goal (a towering header from a set piece, an aspect of the game City are not especially good at) and an assist with a floated ball to the back post — did soften some stances, but there is a sense that the newly-deposed Premier League champions should be looking elsewhere or aiming higher.

Rightly or wrongly — again, there is plenty to suggest Gibbs-White would be a very good fit for City — there are several reasons for that scepticism.

Morgan Gibbs-White and Pep Guardiola after Nottingham Forest’s FA Cup semi-final defeat against Manchester City in April (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

With Kevin De Bruyne leaving, City should be bringing in a world-class replacement, especially with many of their supporters not wanting him to go in the first place. De Bruyne has been so outlandishly good for so long that people think the only way to replicate what he has done at City is for them to sign somebody from the very top level of the game, or at least somebody with the kind of well-hyped potential to get there.

That is where Wirtz comes in. The 22-year-old Germany international midfielder is widely heralded as one of the next big things in world football, and City have made a big push to sign him. There is an ongoing battle with Real Madrid and, particularly, Bayern Munich, but signing him is a far more seductive option to many of the club’s supporters.

Landing Wirtz would be a major coup and provide confidence that City are building another era of success, but the mindset that only somebody of his stature should be considered for De Bruyne’s replacement is a little misguided. City have only gone shopping in the high-end supermarket once over the past decade, and that was when they bought Erling Haaland.

De Bruyne himself, as well as other stalwarts of the era — including Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan, Rodri, Ruben Dias, Ederson and Raheem Sterling — are examples of how City have excelled at identifying very good players and taking them to the next level. Successful value signings, such as Manuel Akanji and Julian Alvarez, also highlight an ability to spot a bargain.

Kevin De Bruyne celebrates his winner against Wolves this month (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

A few less successful examples from recent years may have affected the thinking. Two of City’s most recent Premier League buys have backfired: signing Kalvin Phillips from Leeds United proved a complete disaster and bringing in Matheus Nunes from Wolverhampton Wanderers has barely been better, save for the midfielder’s recent stint as a right-back.

Even Jack Grealish has split opinion among the City support — there are plenty who dispute his impact on the club’s treble success, despite his importance to Guardiola’s game plan and his consistency during that particular season. His fitness problems over the two years since have done little to win him any more supporters and he could leave this summer, most likely on loan, with Newcastle United among those interested.

Grealish cost £100million ($132m at current rates) — which is Gibbs-White’s rumoured price tag — and was 25 when City signed him, so there are a few parallels.

City generally sign players between the ages of 20 and 23, leading to the sense that any older ones coming in should be better equipped to shine. Grealish was signed when Phil Foden was 20 — the point being that if the kids at City are that good, those in their ‘prime years’ should be even better.

Gibbs-White would command a similar fee to Jack Grealish (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

Omar Marmoush, 26, will probably find that he has to play better than 22-year-old Jeremy Doku and Savinho, 21, to fully win over the City crowd.

The other thing that probably counts against Gibbs-White is that he was involved in a clash with Rodri last season that saw the City midfielder sent off. The Spaniard pushed Gibbs-White in the throat during the incident but such are club loyalties, it was the man on the receiving end who attracted more scorn.

His importance to Forest is not in doubt (illustrated above) but, as much as anything else, City need homegrown players. UEFA rules compel clubs to register at least eight domestically developed players, with teams losing a spot in their squad for every homegrown place they do not fill. This season, City only registered six homegrown players, cutting their senior squad from 25 to 23.

Fortunately, nobody had to miss out but with Grealish a candidate to move on, James McAtee also considered likely to go and uncertainty around John Stones, Nathan Ake and 39-year-old reserve goalkeeper Scott Carson, new homegrown players could be needed. If City only signed players who spent most of their early years abroad, they would surrender squad places and could not register all their senior players for European games.

If Ederson leaves, a strong possibility, another goalkeeper will be needed, but there are not many homegrown candidates to replace him.

For Gibbs-White, maybe there is still something lacking in terms of (for want of better phrases) his hype or his PR.

Making a case to sign a player based on stats normally only serves to make the sceptics more sceptical but as well as the points made in Thom’s article — for example Gibbs-White’s ability in duels and second balls, an undeniable need for City going forward — it can also be highlighted that he makes similar movements to De Bruyne on the pitch (as illustrated below).

Gibbs-White is also very positive in how he plays. Like De Bruyne, he is often ahead of the ball and makes lots of underlapping runs. The big difference is that De Bruyne generally delivers more crosses and Gibbs-White generally gets on the end of them, but those are tactical details relating to different managers.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether Gibbs-White ends up at City at all, but if he does, it will be fascinating to see how his chance creation and physicality translate to a team entering their post-De Bruyne era — not to mention what the reaction of the fans will be.

(Top photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

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