Nottingham Forest ‘at final stages’ of securing Man City star with fee revealed
Nottingham Forest are at the ‘final stages’ of securing a Manchester City star, with the fee revealed and the player having ‘fully agreed’ personal terms, according to Fabrizio Romano.
Forest have so far added four players to their squad, while perhaps their biggest piece of business was a contract extension. Morgan Gibbs-White extended his deal for three years in July, after a lot of speculation over his future.
Tottenham were reported to have triggered a release clause in Gibbs-White’s contract, but Forest then filed a formal complaint to the Premier League about it, stopping Spurs’ advances before they gave the midfielder a new deal.
Gibbs-White had previously been on the radar of Manchester City, but they instead added Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders to the midfield, and now Forest are closing in on a Citizens midfielder instead.
Indeed, transfer insider Romano has revealed that Forest are ‘closing in’ on a deal for James McAtee, worth in excess of £20million.
Romano states the agreement is ‘at the final stages’, Forest are confident to get it done, and it will be official soon.
In a subsequent post, Romano has stated personal terms are ‘fully agreed’ between McAtee and Forest, and despite ‘several requests’ from clubs, the midfielder wants Forest.
McAtee started just three of his 15 Premier League games last season, though he did score three times in the league, three more in the FA Cup and once in the Champions League.
It seems likely that his appearance numbers will rise at Forest, who don’t have the same level of stars across the board at City, but still have some good players around who will hope can link up well with McAtee.
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When City looked like they were going to land Gibbs-White, football finance insider Stefan Borson suggested McAtee was the most likely man to make way.
He said: “McAtee will be on obviously the lower end wage-wise, but he’s one that can be sold quite quickly now. He’s a player that there is a lot of demand for.
“His wage expectations will not be excessive for the clubs that he’s speaking to, the German clubs, for example, and you know the reality is he’s not going to play for City anymore.
“I think it’s slightly disappointing that City didn’t really give him a bit more game time, but it’s water under the bridge now and he will leave. I think City will get their £25million and bank the profit.
“They have already probably invested that profit expecting it to come in due course.”
