07/28/Daily Telegraph's renowned reporter John Percy and his team reveal the inside story of Gibbs- and Nottingham Forest's contract renewal.

Morgan Gibbs-White will continue to wear the red of Nottingham Forest this season, a moment that feels like a clear to the powerful 'big six' for owner Evangelos Marinakis.

Marinakis' determination to turn Forest into a force in European football was underlined by his persuasion of Gibbs-White to turn down a huge transfer fee from Tottenham, another obvious sign of progress for the club.

Tottenham, under new head coach Antonio Con, are preparing for the Champions League, and they were convinced the deal was inevitable after triggering the £60 million release clause.

However, the full story of how this began, including intense legal threats and wrangling between the clubs' owners, can be revealed here.

The consequences of Tottenham's transfer decision on July 10 were-reaching. Forest were convinced Spurs had breached an element of the confidentiality provisions, and even questioned whether Spurs' offer procedure had been fully in line with the release clause.
Such clauses can be extremely complicated and it is understood that Tottenham failed to activate certain conditions.

Forest issued a letter of intent to take legal action against Spurs chairman Daniel Levy were also considering making a formal complaint to the Premier League.

Just two weeks later, Gibbs-White committed his future to Forest. Marinakis flew to Portugal on Thursday only one purpose — to resolve the future of the star player. Negotiations were swift and on Saturday night, before the friendly against Fulham, the England international agreed to.

There was no release clause and no gentlemen's agreement to allow him to leave for the right price next summer. Gibbs-White will be Forest's highest-earner in history and Marinakis will see it as a major victory.