Morgan Gibbs-White breaks silence on failed Tottenham transfer after Nottingham Forest decision

Morgan Gibbs-White has revealed that complications with his fiancee's pregnancy were a contributing factor behind his decision to reject a move to Tottenham and remain at Nottingham Forest.

Gibbs-White, 25, was at the centre of a tense transfer battle earlier this summerwhen Tottenham tried to bring him to north London. Thomas Frank's side triggered the £60million release clause in his contract, but Forest took issue and claimed that Spurs made an illegal approach for the England international.

Forest felt that confidential details of the release clause's exact amount were breached and the club's board proceeded to end all communication with Tottenham regarding Gibbs-White.

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Gibbs-White continued to train and feature for Forest in pre-season before making a dramatic U-Turn and signing a new bumper three-year contract at The City Ground. His decision to turn down a chance of Champions League football raised plenty of eyebrows, but now he has explained why he made that choice.

Discussing this time, he told talkSPORT: "Every footballer has personal goals and personal ambitions that they want to achieve. Mine is winning trophies, playing in the World Cup, playing in the Euros, playing Champions League football, just to be able to reach the maximum that I'm able to reach.

"Obviously in the summer, everybody's seen what was going on and whatever."

Gibbs-White continued: "But away from that, it was a really difficult period for me and my fiancee. Having my second child, but there were a few complications with all of that.

"I believed in being professional, showing up every day and letting everything else take care of what it needs to do. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I'm delighted with my decision, more than happy. I think my fiancee is even more happy because she didn't get to carry on with all the stress."

Since Gibbs-White's £25million plus add-ons move to Forest in 2022, he has established himself as one of the most sought-after attacking midfielders in the Premier League. Last season, the former Wolves and Sheffield United man scored seven goals and added eight assists in 34 top-flight appearances.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side finished the campaign in seventh - the club's highest in 30 years - and qualified for the Europa League after Crystal Palace were booted out of Europe's second-tier competition for breaching UEFA multi-club ownership rules. The Reds are set to enter at the league phase next month.

"With everything that happened this summer, it was like it hit home a bit," Gibbs-White explained. I've been through a lot with this club these past three years, and to feel like I was going to miss out on what we achieved last season sort of broke me a little bit.

"And I wanted to go through this next stage with Forest and play Europa League football with them, because me and a few others were the ones that, three years ago we came in, this was our goal to stay in the league and try and push up."

Gibbs-White added: "It's a home from home, so I sort of had that broken-hearted feeling, like when you split with your first childhood girlfriend."