I once rumbled Morgan Gibbs-White in school den and now he could achieve same Forest feat as me
Nottingham Forest are verging on ‘everyone’s favourite second team’ territory with their unlikely assault on the Premier League title and their very real prospects of qualifying for the Champions League.
Much as Nuno Espirito Santo strives to keep things on the down-low neutrals fawn over this season’s surprise package, pundits gush and fans dream dreams that two years ago seemed impossible.
Imagine then how Des Lyttle feels about the campaign that is unfolding before our very eyes. As a former Reds defender, even now the 53-year-old feels a very deep connection to events at the City Ground. But his investment doesn’t end there.
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As an educator and coach who played a role in Morgan Gibbs-White’s early development, Lyttle is enjoying the Red renaissance on a professional level as well.
Since 2012 Lyttle has been director of football at Thomas Telford School in Telford, Shropshire and Gibbs-White is one of scores of academy players who have passed through his set-up due to an official link-up with Wolves and other students placed at Aston Villa, West Brom, Shrewsbury Town and Burton Albion.
There’s even a couple at Forest. “We've got two Year 10s that have been picked up by them, so it's brilliant when I see them around school and they come to me and say ‘I saw your picture at the ground’,” Lyttle tells NottinghamshireLive.
As they say, if you can see it, you can be it and school football is all about pathways. Lyttle has been paving one for 13 years but few have progressed quite as far as Gibbs-White, from ‘mischievous’ teenager to England international.
“Did we see that talent? Yes but anybody who says that as a kid they could see them going on and make it is guessing a bit because it takes loads to go on and be a footballer.
“Morgan had many of the things you need, you could see the way he played in games, he was clever, he had a different brain to the other lads. He had that worth ethic but a clever brain and great touch. I’d be lying if I said I knew he was going to be a £45m player. It’s amazing how quickly he went from us to that.
“To do what he is doing, with Forest and England now, is ridiculous because it only seems like a minute ago he was playing for us in school games.”
Playing in and standing out. Gibbs-White arrived with a cohort of four or five others, several of whom went from playing Under-14/Under-15 football to be thrust into the school’s Sixth Form team.
“He was a little bit different to the others, he was just clever the way he played, he saw pictures, knew when to move it on and when players did engage him he had great feet.
“I remember going up to Liverpool and playing schools who know we are going up with 6-7 academy lads and they’ve got 6-7 playing for Everton or Man Utd or Liverpool, these cup quarter or semi finals are like academy games, real good games.
“There was one heated game and he is showing his ability and his work ethic. His position, No. 10, has been classed a luxury position but he worked hard, he was putting his foot in and had both sides to his game.
“There was a semi-final at Archbishop Beck Under-18, that was a heated game, I think he had some abuse but he stuck up for himself and scored. There were times when schools tried to test his temperament but he looked after himself and looked after others too.”
But it wasn’t all business. Boys, after all, will be boys. “The funniest thing Morgan did was go off with three or four of the other lads, they were supposed to be in the library doing catch-up work and they weren’t there. I had a phone call from Mr Rawlings, who is now the Head, he was in charge of looking after the boys with me, he told me I needed to go and find them.”
Lyttle tracked them down to the sports hall, where they’d built a den out of trampoline mats and locked the door. Once they were rumbled the miscreants bolted out of the fire exit at the back of the cupboard.
“I was wetting myself a little bit. You get hold of them and they were chuckling. There was no harm in it at all, they were polite, I met his dad a few times, he’d obviously had a good upbringing.”
Gibbs-White moved on after a couple of years at Thomas Telford, signed his scholarship and professional deal at Wolves and started to catch the eye of Molineux boss Nuno.
He had already made his senior debut as a 16-year-old in an FA Cup win over Stoke when the Portuguese arrived a few months later. He would go on to make 88 appearances for Wolves before Forest splashed the cash in the summer of 2022.
Lyttle would only sporadically see his former student: “He came back into school to do a few assemblies but I used to see him quite a lot at South Staffs Golf Club, definitely in his last year at Wolves and he was really picking up the game as a beginner. I stood over him and watched his swing. Is he any good? Hopefully he’s got better, let’s leave it at that.”
There can be no doubting his development in his day job. Gibbs-White has not only gone on to play 98 times in the Garibaldi Red. He’s scored 15 goals and added 22 assists and has risen to captain the team to the most unlikely of seasons.
“It reminds me of my days really. We finished third (in 1995), went into Europe, we got into the quarter-finals of what is now the Europa League. It’s a different style of football, isn't it? It's a kind of a delay to counterattack. But people are talking about it and asking, even me, are they going to finish third, are they going to win it?
“You're kind of pinching yourself thinking, ‘Alright, are they going to go and lose one, then lose two and then they're going to drop out the top four?’ But it doesn't seem like it, does it? Every week they keep churning out these wins.
“I remember being in that same situation, I think we hadn’t been beaten for 21 games from one season to the next. I think we set some kind of record so I can understand how those players are feeling. It doesn't matter where you go, Old Trafford, Man City, I bet those players are feeling 10ft tall and thinking they can't be beaten.
“It's brilliant to see it because I love Forest, I had six great years there and the people in the city are brilliant. It'd be unbelievable if they won it, but you have still got to put Liverpool as massive favourites. If they can finish in the top 4, it'd be like unbelievable considering where they were, it will be like winning the league.
“When they were in the Championship Forest that was always the first result I looked for but even more now, you watch the live games and you see one of your ex-students in there. It's a double whammy, isn't it?” It would also be a big change from sheepishly bolting out the back-door, to confidently kicking in the front.
