Nottingham Forest fans can look forward to Morgan Gibbs-White potentially making his first England start this month.
Gibbs-White won his first two caps for England earlier this season under Lee Carsley and, now that he’s in the form of his life, his first start could be on the cards.
However, the Nottingham Forest star didn’t initially get into the squad, with the call-up coming only after Cole Palmer was ruled out through injury.
Gibbs-White has now spoken about what he told new England boss Thomas Tuchel after he contacted the Reds player up to confirm he was getting called up.
Morgan Gibbs White told Thomas Tuchel he ‘obviously’ wanted to join up with England squad
Gibbs-White told reporters that he voiced his disappointment to Tuchel after the new England boss told him he wouldn’t be getting called up.
“I was upset, a little bit disappointed, but at the same time you always have to look at the quality of players England have,” Gibbs-White told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“I took that into consideration, but when he told me, I respected his decision.
“I said to him ‘I think I have done enough to get the call-up considering the club form that we are in, but you are the manager, you make the decisions, and I will respect that’.”
Then, Tuchel called Gibbs-White up after Palmer’s injury to tell him he would be in the squad after all, and the player revealed exactly what he said to the Three Lions boss.
Gibbs-White said on talkSPORT: “Sunday late afternoon, he messaged me to say ‘are you free for a call?’ And I replied so fast saying ‘yes’.
“And obviously he said: ‘Are you still upset or do you want to come and join us in training tomorrow?’
“And I said: ‘Obviously I want to come and join the team in training tomorrow.’ So to get the call was incredible. And I’m just so happy to be here right now.”
Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson said Gibbs-White’s initial England squad omission was “beyond a joke”, but insisted he wouldn’t blame Tuchel.
Instead, Merson blamed the FA for Gibbs-White’s initial omission, because they haven’t given Tuchel enough time to build a squad for the future.
England are in action against Albania on Friday 21 March (7:45pm kick-off) and against Latvia on Monday 24 March (7:45pm kick-off).
How Morgan Gibbs-White has fared this season
Gibbs-White has gone from strength to strength under Nuno Espirito Santo at Forest and has played a huge part in their rise to the top four.
He has registered five goals and seven assists from 25 league games and ranks highly in terms of duels won, key passes and ball recoveries.
| Total matches played | 25 |
| Goals | 5 |
| Shots per game | 1.7 |
| Shots on target per game | 0.7 |
| Assists | 7 |
| Touches per game | 51.5 |
| Big chances created | 8 |
| Key passes per game | 1.7 |
| Interceptions per game | 0.6 |
| Tackles per game | 1.4 |
| Balls recovered per game | 3.9 |
| Successful dribbles per game | 1.1 (47%) |
| Total duels won | 4.9 (47%) |
| Ground duels won | 3.6 (47%) |
| Aerial duels won | 1.3 (46%) |
Peter Crouch said of Gibbs-White on TNT Sports after Forest’s recent 7-0 win over Brighton: “He’s a modern-day player.
“Back in our day, players with that ability were almost luxury players.
“But the amount of work he gets through and the pressing – if you want to play a high press he can do that, if you want to sit back he’s transitional and when you win the ball he carries it and invariably picks the right pass.
“[He does] a bit of everything and he does it really well; he can get goals, create goals, he’s very clever in the way he goes down for the penalty – he won’t thank me for saying this – but he accentuates the foul, very intelligent.
“When I look around the top teams, he could play for absolutely anyone. He’s really enjoying his time here and hopefully that doesn’t stop for a long time, but I genuinely believe he could play for anyone.”
