Man Utd also linked 

©IMAGO

Manchester City are showing no sign of relenting in their pursuit of Nottingham Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson. After lengthy negotiations, the Etihad side now have an agreement in place with Nottingham Forest to sign the England midfielder. The Athletic reported today that Nottingham Forest wanted the fixed fee to be higher than the £125m (€145m) British transfer record Liverpool paid Newcastle United for Alexander Isak last summer. A report by Fabrizio Romano has suggested a fee in the region of £130m (€150m).

The 23-year-old talent made the move to Forest in 2024 from Newcastle for €41.2 million, but now seems set to depart the City Ground for at least twice that amount in the coming months. Indeed, Anderson has gone from strength to strength at Forest, bagging an impressive six goals and 11 assists in 92 games across all competitions over the course of the last two years. His impressive performances have also seen his market value rise from just €15m when he first joined the club, to where it now stands at €75m – no other midfielder in the English top-flight has gained more market value than Anderson since he swapped Newcastle for Forest.

Although no exact figure has been confirmed by either club, the fee Forest are holding out for Anderson is higher than what Arsenal paid for Declan Rice when he moved from West Ham in 2023, for €116.6m. The future Premier League champion became the second most expensive central midfielder signed by an English side at the time, sitting just below Enzo Fernández’s €121m move to Chelsea in 2023 and Moisés Caicedo’s €116m move to Stamford Bridge in the same year.

Set to join Man City – Where does Anderson rank among top transfers?

Should Anderson go for a fee higher than what Liverpool paid for Isak last summer, he’ll smash the previous highest fee paid by Man City for a central midfielder. That current record is still held by Rodri, who moved to the English giants in 2019 for €70m. Although Anderson’s move will almost certainly place him above second-placed Josko Gvardiol (€90m move from RB Leipzig in 2023), it remains to be seen whether the midfielder’s eventual fee would break the club’s all-time record, which remains the €117.5m Man City paid for Jack Grealish in 2021.