Manchester City Pursue £100m Elliot Anderson Transfer
Manchester City have picked their midfielder. Now they are trying to prise him out of Nottingham Forest’s hands at speed.
An opening bid has already gone in for Elliot Anderson and already been knocked back, with Forest holding out for a fee in the region of £100 million for the 23-year-old England international. The answer from the City Ground was firm: not enough.
City’s response has been just as clear. They are not walking away.
City push the pace
This is not a slow-burn saga. Inside the Etihad, Anderson has been the preferred midfield target for close to a year, and the club want the deal wrapped up before Enzo Maresca’s first pre-season gets going in July.
Transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano reports that City will try to close an agreement “as soon as possible”, and the urgency around the move underlines how central Anderson is to their plans. Bernardo Silva has gone, leaving a sizeable creative and tactical void. City believe Anderson is the one to fill it.
Behind the scenes, director of football Hugo Viana and Maresca are aligned. They see Anderson’s box‑to‑box profile as tailor-made for the next evolution of this City side: energy, press resistance, goals from midfield, and the capacity to link phases the way Bernardo once did.
A tug-of-war over value
Forest know exactly what they have and are acting like it. The Midlands club are understood to value Anderson at around £100m, and previous reports suggested they had even floated figures as high as £125m during earlier conversations.
City, for their part, see the deal closer to £80m. That leaves a sizeable gap for the two clubs to navigate in the coming days, and this is where the negotiation gets serious.
Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is believed to be handling talks personally from the City Ground. When an owner steps in, it usually means two things: the player is central to the club’s sporting project, and the numbers are big enough to demand top-level sign-off.
Yet the pressure is not all on Forest. City want clarity fast. Maresca cannot afford to start his first pre-season still wondering who will anchor and energise his midfield.
England duty, City medical
The pursuit has already spilled into the international arena. Anderson is currently with England at the FIFA World Cup in North America, but national team manager Thomas Tuchel has allowed him to undergo a Manchester City medical during the tournament.
That decision says plenty. England are protecting their player’s future, City are trying to steal a march on their rivals, and the player himself has made his stance known.
The former Newcastle United midfielder has indicated his preference to join City, despite interest from Manchester United. When a player of his age and profile makes that choice clear, it usually accelerates the process. It also piles quiet pressure on his current club.
Forest can hold firm on their valuation. What they cannot easily do is ignore the direction of travel.
Tonali in the shadows
City are not negotiating blind. While Anderson remains the first choice, the club have been assessing the market for alternatives, with Newcastle United’s Sandro Tonali scouted as a potential option if Forest prove immovable.
Tonali’s name sits in the background, a reminder that City will not allow themselves to be cornered. But there is no sense yet that they are ready to pivot. All signals point to a club determined to get Anderson over the line, not one preparing to abandon the chase.
The message from the Etihad is simple: Anderson is Plan A. The rest is contingency.
A defining early test for Maresca’s City
For Maresca, this is an early test of how quickly City can reshape around his ideas. He steps into the role knowing he must maintain domestic dominance while refreshing an ageing core. Securing his primary midfield target before pre-season would give him a crucial head start.
For Forest and Marinakis, it is a question of timing and ambition. Cashing in on a prized asset at peak value could transform their squad, but losing a 23-year-old England international who has become central to their identity is a brutal sporting blow.
Somewhere between City’s £80m view of the deal and Forest’s £100m stance lies the number that will decide whether Anderson walks into the Etihad in July as the face of Maresca’s new midfield – or whether this becomes the first major stand-off of the summer.
