By Ben Hart, Sportsbeat

MARLON Harewood believes transfer speculation surrounding the 'top-class' Morgan Gibbs-White is not necessarily a bad thing for Nottingham Forest.

Gibbs-White, who was suspended for Monday’s clash with Crystal Palace, has established himself as one of the Premier League’s finest midfielders and earnt a first England cap in September.

The 24-year-old has been linked with a move to Newcastle and Tottenham Hotspur in the past 12 months but former Forest fan favourite Harewood hopes he will stay at the club and become a club legend.

“The last couple of years he’s played really well and he is a top class player,” said Harewood, who was speaking at the Copa del Cure Leukaemia tournament at St George’s Park.

“It’s good for Forest that the players they’ve bought in have done so well and are wanted by other clubs because that means they are doing well.

“I hope he can stay at Forest because it’s a club I’ve got close to my heart and I wouldn’t want to see him leave. If in himself he fancies a change, that’s up to him.

“I hope he stays for as long as he can and continues to do well for the club.”

Conductor-in-chief Gibbs-White has formed a perfect partnership with striker Chris Wood, laying on around a quarter of the New Zealander’s goals in the 2023/24 season.

Like Wood, former Forest fan favourite Harewood bounced around clubs during his career but can tell that this match is a perfect one for club and player.

“A player like Chris has loved scoring goals throughout his career,” said Harewood.

“I had no doubt that he would do it. He’s done so well and I’m so pleased for him and it looks like he’s enjoying his football.

“Players move around to different clubs and obviously he’s moved to Forest and it’s worked for him. He’s enjoying his football and that’s translated to scoring goals. Chris has proven his quality and the recruitment has been really good.”

Some tipped Forest for a relegation fight at the start of the season but they have shown their class in big matches, winning away to Liverpool and picking up a point at Chelsea.

Harewood, who is an ambassador for both Forest and West Ham, believes the club have found their feet in the Premier League and insists they should be looking up, not down.

“I’m not surprised by how well they’ve started,” Harewood added. “This is their third season in the Premier League and they’ve done well. The gaffer (Nuno Espirito Santo) has found a good formula for how they want to play and how they want to do it and it’s shown.

“The City Ground is an absolute fortress when everyone is on key, the fans love it with sellout crowds week in week out.”

“They’ve settled the ship in terms of being in the top-flight and now they want to kick on.”

Cure Leukaemia is a UK-based blood cancer charity founded in 2003, working to accelerate the process of bringing life-saving treatments to leukaemia patients by funding specialist Research Nurses across the country