A 2022 signing from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Morgan Gibbs-White has been on a footballing rollercoaster ride with Nottingham Forest this season, the 26-year-old enduring a relegation battle while making it to the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League, and scoring the goal that eliminated Porto in the quarter-finals.
Aston Villa now stand between the Reds and their first major continental final since Brian Clough led Forest to European Cup glory in 1979 and 1980, and for Gibbs-White it is a great opportunity for his side – refreshed under new coach Vítor Pereira – to write their own chapter in the club’s illustrious history.
Latest: Forest vs Aston VillaOn the semi-final against Aston Villa
We’ve played them in the Premier League. It’s going to be a really difficult game, with the form that they’re obviously in in the Premier League as well, but it’s another opponent. We face different opponents every single week. We’ve done it in the Europa League. So we’re really excited – really, really excited – focused, and wanting to get the job done.
[They are a] physical side, a team that [has] been in these competitions before, and been in Champions League competitions before. So, they know how to handle these sorts of situations, so we’ve got to be really prepared in how we handle it. But no, we’re going to go into both legs wanting to win both.
Every Nottingham Forest Europa League goal so farOn Forest’s adventures in the Europa League
Last season, coming seventh and getting to the Europa League was obviously a massive thing for this club. It was huge. We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs over the past four years and to be in the situation that we’re in now is obviously special. It’s incredible. We just hope we can just go a bit further in the competition.
It’s about giving the fans and the club that experience again, of being in a European competition, something that they can talk to their kids about and spread it through generations. That’s the best thing that you can do as a player – give fans the experience, give fans the opportunity to see different sights, see different football games, see different stadiums. And I feel like that’s what we’ve done this year.
Igor Jesus and Morgan Gibbs-White (pictured right) celebrate a Europa League winUEFA via Getty ImagesOn Vítor Pereira’s outlook
One of his first things that he did when he came in, and that was one of the first things he explained as well, is that: ‘I want to give you guys the clearest way of playing the way I want you to play.’ The boys have really bought into it and I think you can see, the way we’re playing right now and recently, that it’s really starting to show.
What is his vision? Being together, 100%. His key message every week is that we fight for absolutely everything. I think he says that in every speech that he does because you can have all the talent in the world, but if you aren’t willing to work hard and work hard for the win or for your team-mates, it’s not going to happen. So it’s having the desire.
Vítor Pereira reaction to Nott’m Forest reaching semi-finalsOn the legacy of Brian Clough’s two-time European champions
There’s incredible history in this club, but at the same time, we want to write our own history. And I feel like we’ve done that so far, but obviously there’s so much more to do, and so much more to go.
All we seemed to talk about before we got into the Europa League, is how we won trophies in Europe before – but we want to be the ones to re-write that history, and put our names down on the trophy.
Brian Clough with the European Cup trophy in 1980Bob Thomas Sports Photography via Getty Images On what it would mean to win the competition
Everything, absolutely everything. Just from the journey that we’ve been on since we got to the Premier League, fighting relegation, things going against us, points deductions, just fighting through every single battle, and I feel like that’s what this city does, we fight for everything.
So, to be able to write our name down in history in this club would be a really special thing and, for generations, they’ll be able to speak about us in that sort of way, how Brian Clough and that team got spoken about. So, it’d be really special, and hopefully we can get the job done.