The monster Man City and Nottingham Forest swap transfer deal that could shake up the summer window - opinion

Few England players emerged from their 3-1 defeat to Senegal on Tuesday evening with a great deal of credit – but it was appropriate that perhaps the liveliest player in a white shirt was Morgan Gibbs-White, playing in front of his home crowd at the City Ground. The only worry was that it may be the last time the Nottingham Forest fans get to watch him there, unless he’s coming out of the away dressing room.

It was a brief but sparky performance that will do little to dampen speculation that some of the Premier League’s biggest and richest teams will bid for Gibbs-White this summer, with Manchester City reportedly deeply interested in a deal having seemingly missed out on Florian Wirtz. Gibbs-White’s time in a red shirt may be drawing to a close. Fortunately, Forest may have the ideal solution to his departure close at hand.

Why James McAtee and Morgan Gibbs-White could trade places this summer

In May, numerous outlets – including The Daily Telegraph – reported that Forest were every bit as interested in Manchester City’s James McAtee as City were in Gibbs-White. The only issue was that Bayer Leverkusen were also said to be interested in the England Under-21 star, and they had Champions League football to offer. But the situation may have changed.

According to German tabloid Bild, who can admittedly be patchy when it comes to accuracy even on their own patch, Leverkusen have moved on from McAtee since deciding to appoint former Manchester United head coach Erik ten Hag as their replacement for Madrid-bound Xabi Alonso.

Should that prove to be the case, then Forest’s chances of landing a prized young player should increase significantly, and while losing Gibbs-White would be an undoubted blow to a club making their way in continental competition for the first time in three decades, McAtee could well be a ready-made replacement.

At 22, of course, McAtee is behind Gibbs-White on the development curve, and naturally if he was able to do everything Nottingham Forest’s club record signing could do already, City wouldn’t be trying to sell one and buy the other. But as Cole Palmer proved, City can make mistakes when evaluating whether to keep hold of their young talents, and McAtee’s record is starting to become rather impressive.

On the one hand, McAtee’s total of seven goals in 27 games in all competitions is solid for a youngster but scarcely overwhelming – but digging deeper into the stats and film suggests that he is ready to be playing regular first-team football, something he was only starting to get towards the end of the season…

James McAtee has the potential to be a huge hit at Nottingham Forest

One reason that City may be content to let Gibbs-White and McAtee trade places is that they value having a creator over a destroyer – and while McAtee is nominally a number ten, his exploits in front of goal imply that he’s much closer to being a traditional forward than Pep Guardiola may feel is necessary.

You can see a striker’s instincts in his goal against Crystal Palace in April, when he expertly beat the offside trap to race onto a long pass before coolly rounding Dean Henderson to score from an angle. Or in the effortless way he peeled off the shoulder of his marker to score a well-placed header against Ipswich Town in January. And it can certainly be seen in seven goal he’s scored for England’s Under-21s, a tally he may have added to in the European Championships by the time you read this.

His predatory instincts are also clear in the data. He scored four goals from 3.1xG between the Premier League and Champions League, and in all tournaments bagged seven goals from just 27 attempts on goal. There are few strikers who wouldn’t be thrilled by such underlying numbers.

Even before that, he scored 12 league goals over the course of two seasons on loan at Sheffield United, mostly playing in deeper positions, from 9.4xG. His instincts in front of goal and his ability to tear into space – particularly against high lines, which he can exploit ruthlessly – are highly impressive.

That’s a skill set that City may not need so much given that they already have Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush to carry the goalscoring burden, but which Forest may be keen to acquire in order to find a player who can share some of the load with the ageing Chris Wood. Time will inevitably catch up with the Kiwi at some point, after all.

Gibbs-White is certainly better in deeper positions and in the channels, with both a deadlier passing range and the ability to beat defenders one-on-one with the ball at his feet, but while McAtee has some catching up to do to become an equally threatening number ten, he has shown flashes of playmaking class. There’s room for development, certainly, but he the fundamental technique is there, even if he doesn’t create as many chances for those around him as he needs to.

With the way that Nuno Espirito Santo sets Forest up to play, however, with direct football and quick counter-attacks the order of the day, McAtee’s deficiencies become less important and his qualities more so. He looks, on paper, to be an ideal fit with plenty of room to grow into Gibbs-White’s boots should he step into them this summer.

If a deal does get done, of course, it wouldn’t be a straight swap – as Forest learned when they horse traded Odysseas Vlachodimos and Elliot Anderson last season, ‘swaps’ are pretty handy for the profit and sustainability calculations, and that’s a pitfall that the club would prefer not to stumble into for a second time.

Forest don’t have a clear path to signing McAtee. Recent reports suggest definite interest from Everton, for starters, and it’s likely that other teams will have him somewhere on their watchlists – but Forest can offer European football and thanks to the possibility of a bid for Gibbs-White, may have a very strong negotiating position. If there’s a chance a deal can be done, it would certainly make perfect sense on paper.