Nottingham Forest want Morgan Gibbs-White but Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Bruno Lage is now demanding £50million for his signature.
This transfer saga has been going on since Forest won promotion to the Premier League back in May.
Gibbs-White is a favourite of Forest boss Steve Cooper and a reunion would be hugely exciting for Forest fans.
The pair worked together in the England Under-17 setup before then joining forces at Swansea City.
Cooper would seemingly love to sign Gibbs-White for Forest, but this is proving to be a very difficult deal to pull off.
The Guardian report that Forest are offering a total package of £35million for Gibbs-White, but the deal has been rejected by Wolves.
That deal seemingly consisted of £25million up front with £10million in add-ons, which wasn’t to Wolves’ liking.
Forest may still hope to finally secure a deal for Gibbs-White, but they will seemingly have to dig deep to meet Wolves’ demands.
Wolves boss Bruno Lage has told the Birmingham Mail that he wants a huge fee for Gibbs-White; not £40million, not £45million but £50million.
Lage has admitted that he now sees a ‘top player’ in Gibbs-White having accepted that the club wanted to loan him out last season.
Lage added that it would ultimately cost Wolves £50million to sign a player like Gibbs-White, so that’s the fee now expected from anybody who wants to buy him.
“I see a top player. When I want to find a player like him, I need to spend £50m,” said Lage.
“We are also spending because we kept Morgan. How much is Morgan worth? £50m. We kept Ruben Neves. How much? £80m – or I said £100m! We have two players that at the end of the season we didn’t expect would stay.”
“We spent £150m! That’s why I said we need to have patience. Tell me one player who can play like Morgan – how much would you pay for him? Tell me a player who can play like Ruben – how much would you pay for him?” he added.
Lage allegedly intends to start Gibbs-White in the Wolves lineup against Leeds United today, highlighting his role in the setup at Molineux.
Gibbs-White has just two years left on his contract though and Forest will hope to eventually put together a deal that Wolves accept.
Lage’s strong stance and another bid rejected are blows for Forest, but this surely isn’t the end of this pursuit just yet.