Spurs need club-record bid to seal their best signing since Maddison

Tottenham Hotspur are at a low ebb, for sure, but the fact that Pedro Porro is inching toward a new contract in north London speaks volumes toward the incipient Roberto De Zerbi project.

There is a sense that Spurs are going to bounce back. For sure, all has not been well at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium over the past few years, with back-to-back 17th-place finishes in the Premier League evidence of a startling decline, but there have been some sharp improvements over the past few months, and things seem to be heading in the right direction.

Marcos Senesi and Andy Robertson have joined on free transfers, and talks are ongoing with Brighton over the potential signing of Jan Paul van Hecke.

However, it should go without saying that Spurs need more creativity, and ENIC are working toward several signings in that department.

Spurs could seal club-record signing

Tottenham remain locked in talks with Manchester City winger Savinho, who has been stuck on the sidelines over the past year, but who registered eight assists during his first term in England.

The Brazilian winger would add some much-needed impetus and dynamism, but Tottenham’s playmaking problems come from all over. De Zerbi fixed Spurs’ midfield over the final weeks of the season, but he needs a more creative player in there, someone to challenge James Maddison.

According to TEAMtalk, that player could be Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White, though Forest will only let him leave for a figure that equals the £120m price tag placed on Elliot Anderson, who appears set to join Manchester City this summer. That would comfortably eclipse Spurs’ current record capture.

Tottenham came close to signing the England international, who has not been called up to Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad, last summer, and their interest remains intact, with Gibbs-White bringing an all-action style that underpins his creativity. He is exactly what the Lilywhites need.

Why Gibbs-White can be Spurs’s best signing since Maddison

Gibbs-White finished the 2025/26 Premier League season in remarkable goalscoring form. The 25-year-old is surely one of the most talented midfielders in the Premier League, showing two sides to his game over the past two years for Spurs.

Hailed as a “world-class” attacking midfielder by one Forest content creator, Gibbs-White is quickly asserting himself as a player who could take centre stage for a team competing for European football and titles each season. He has, after all, guided Forest into that limelight.

If ENIC manage to whittle down Forest’s exorbitant financial demands, he really could establish himself as Spurs’ best signing since Maddison joined from Leicester City for a £40m fee, bringing a similar quality on the ball but perhaps more combativeness too.

There is a reason Forest are so desperate to keep him at the City Ground. He is the linchpin of Vitor Pereira’s midfield, someone who has shown that they can score goals, create them and prevent them too.

Maddison is a very good player, and his qualities have been sorely missed throughout the season, injured before he could kick a ball under Thomas Frank. It is maybe the profile that Spurs miss more than the player.

In Gibbs-White, Spurs would land someone with Maddison’s creative quality, but perhaps with more variation to their game too.

Having failed with that £60m bid last year, it now looks like Tottenham may need to fork out a club-record sum to bring him over to London. It would be wortth it, for sure, with changes needed to prevent another relegation dogfight from materialising down N17.

Of course, the starved fans want the club to aim for much loftier heights, and by signing Gibbs-White and putting him at the beating heart of De Zerbi’s system, they might sign a Maddison upgrade who can establish himself as their finest signing since his England teammate waltzed through the doors in 2023.