Daniel Feliciano

Fri 19 August 2022 10:40, UK

Everton tried to hijack Morgan Gibbs-White’s transfer to Nottingham Forest on Thursday night, matching their £25m up front bid for the player says John Percy.

The Toffees had been linked with the England Under-21’s midfielder earlier in the window and had a bid rejected, before Forest became the front-runners for his signature.

But with a deal agreed with Forest for £25m up front, rising to a potential £42.5m with add-ons, Everton returned and matched the up front deal only for the player to turn them down as he wanted to play under Steve Cooper.

“Late drama on the Morgan Gibbs-White deal,” Percy said on his personal Twitter account.

“Everton were pushing very hard to hijack it last night and matched the £25m fee paid by Forest. Ultimately, MGW wanted to play for Steve Cooper again and deal with Forest too far down the line. Forest play Everton on Saturday.”

Forest confirmed the transfer as completed on Friday morning, handing Gibbs-White the number ten shirt at the City Ground.

Silly

This club is constantly finding ways to make themselves look silly in the transfer market and this is just another instance of that.

Everton have obviously got money to spend if they’re offering those sums out, so why aren’t they trying to get deals done early instead of waiting and hijacking deals?

They did the same with Amadou Onana but luckily were able to get the deal done, and other than him and Dwight McNeil their transfers have all been for free or on loan.

If there is money to spend, which £25m up front suggests there is, then the club need to get their finger out and find an attacker or preferably two that can come into the squad and add some much needed goals to this team.

There’s no time to waste with less than two weeks to go in the window and gaping holes in the squad evident, so the excuse of having no money is now gone and the club must get to work to strengthen this squad before the deadline or face another relegation scrap.