A summer move could offer Nottingham Forest ace Morgan Gibbs-White a “better chance” of forcing his way into England boss Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup plans, it has been claimed.
Gibbs-White was originally not included when Tuchel named his Three Lions squad for his first matches in charge. However, he received a late call-up when Cole Palmer withdrew due to injury.
Tuchel praised the 25-year-old for the way he responded to initially being left out of the group and also suggested he had impressed in training. But the Reds star ended the international camp without having played a single minute for the German.
Gibbs-White was left out of the match squad for last week’s victory over Albania. He was then included on the bench for Monday night’s game against Latvia but did not get on the pitch.
According to The Telegraph, heading elsewhere could offer the attacker “a better chance” of being considered for the No.10 role with England where there is fierce competition. It is said although Gibbs-White may well qualify for the Champions League with third-placed Forest, he could still attract transfer interest from other clubs in the summer.
The report adds that Tuchel has made clear to players they need to be playing and performing “at the highest possible level” to catch his eye. It is claimed at least two unnamed players in the squad believe they could improve their chances of sealing a place on the plane for next year’s World Cup - assuming the Three Lions qualify - by moving clubs when the transfer window opens.
Prior to Monday’s match, Tuchel said of Gibbs-White: "Morgan is an amazing character, I have to say. I'm happy he is with us.
"He deserves a lot of praise because first of all how he took the first disappointment when he got my call that he (was) not in the squad. He handled it very well, because when he got the second call he was straight away excited and didn't take it personally.
"I can see why he is a winner, we can clearly see that. I think he won titles with the youth teams already, so you can see that he's a fantastic team player and can handle disappointment very very well. When we trained after the match in Wembley he was one of the outstanding players in training, although he was not in the squad before.
"So that's amazing. It's also how we expect it to be because it should be an honour, it should be a privilege to play for England, and the egos have to be put aside - that's what everyone is doing and Morgan does it in an impressive way."
Gibbs-White had admitted to being disappointed at not originally making the cut when Tuchel’s squad was named for the two qualifiers. He said last week: “Obviously I was upset. Yeah, a little bit disappointed.
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“But when he told me, I respected his decision. The standard of players is top level.
“I said to him back like ‘I feel like I’ve done enough to get the call-up, considering the form level that we were in, but obviously you’re the manager, you make the decisions, and I respect that totally’.
“So, obviously, it was disappointing but then Sunday I got the call, so I was straight here. It was about 4 or 5 o’clock. He sent me a message to say ‘Are you free to talk?’ And I think I replied within like 30 seconds.
“He phoned me up and said ‘Are you still upset with me, or do you want to come and join us and fancy training tomorrow?’ Obviously, there’s no question there. I said I’d obviously love to come and join and train with the boys, so, yeah, found out Sunday late afternoon and I was just smiling from ear to ear.”
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