Morgan Gibbs-White joined Swansea City on loan in August after falling down the pecking order at Wolverhampton Wanderers and drawing the ire of Nuno Espirito Santo for breaching club rules.
The 20-year-old had injury problems and stiff competition for places, so dropping down to the Championship provided him with an opportunity to get more playing time. But how has Gibbs-White fared at the Liberty Stadium?
What went wrong at Wolves?
Gibbs-White has made 70 appearances in all competitions since making his senior debut for Wolves in January 2017, scoring one goal with one assist. The England U21 international has only started 22 of those games, however, and been substituted 18 times, so he’s never managed to nail down a regular spot.
Last season, Gibbs-White made the matchday squad 39 times but made only 16 appearances across the board (41%). Nuno Espirito Santo handed him only 677/1440 minutes of football in those outings too (47%), so fans didn’t see a lot of the 20-year-old.
Ruben Neves, Joao Mourinho and Leander Dendoncker were all preferred in midfield, so Gibbs-White was reduced to a backup role. He spent November and December out with a back injury and wasn’t 100% upon his return in January. Nuno clearly noticed and largely ignored Gibbs-White during the second half of the season.
With Vitinha arriving on loan from FC Porto and Meritan Shabani returning from injury, Gibbs-White would have struggled for minutes in 2020/21. If he’s on the periphery at Wolves, he had to find a club were willing to play him. Enter Swansea.
Turnaround in form
Gibbs-White has made five appearances in all competitions for Swansea, scoring one goal with one assist. He’d been a regular under Steve Cooper, playing 405 minutes from a possible 450, before suffering a knee injury in City’s 2-1 win over Millwall on October 3 which caused him to miss their last four league games.
Cooper ruled Gibbs-White out for three months, so that may be the last we’ll see of him in 2020. While a blow given his impressive form, the 20-year-old should still have the entire second half of the season to shine. You’d assume Wolves are keeping tabs on Gibbs-White, so they’ll be pleased with what they saw.
In other news, here’s why Wolverhampton Wanderers missed out on Rafael Leão
