Manchester City have made an opening offer for Elliot Anderson and Nottingham Forest have turned it down. The move is the first concrete bid in a pursuit that is still alive, but it leaves City needing to decide how far they are prepared to go for the England midfielder.
The timing matters because Anderson is in Miami with England's squad at a training camp in Florida, preparing for the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. He is set to play a key role for Thomas Tuchel’s side, and the fresh interest only adds to a summer in which his future has become one of the more closely watched transfer stories in the Premier League.
Forest are not actively looking to sell, but there is a reluctant acceptance that Anderson is likely to leave this summer. They will try to get the best possible deal if he does go, and they are under no pressure to move quickly: the 23-year-old has three years left on his contract and the club know any suitor will have to come back with a serious offer before talks move on.
That stance fits the value Forest believe he carries. Anderson joined from Newcastle United in a £35m deal that also sent goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos the other way, and he has since made 92 appearances for the club, including 50 in all competitions this season. He was originally valued at £15m in that transaction, but his rise since then has changed the market around him.
City's interest is also part of a broader search for top English talent. After Pep Guardiola left after 10 years, and with John Stones and Bernardo Silva also departing, City have been reshaping their squad and see Anderson as a possible replacement for Bernardo Silva. Clubs are willing to pay heavily for proven Premier League players, as the fees for Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Declan Rice have shown, while some in the market still point to the £105m package Arsenal agreed with West Ham in July 2023 as the level another elite midfielder would need to beat in guarantees.
Manchester United have also tracked the 23-year-old, though their position has long been that they would not bid as high as Forest are expected to want. On Tuesday, The Athletic reported United had agreed a deal with Atalanta for Ederson, a move that could shape the rest of the market around Anderson and other midfield targets. The City and Forest chairmen, Evangelos Marinakis and Khaldoon Al Mubarak, spoke at UEFA’s Champions League dinner in Budapest last Thursday, but there is no suggestion they discussed Anderson there.
For now, City’s first offer has been rejected and the next number will matter more than the first one. Forest have made clear they will not give up a homegrown midfielder of this profile cheaply, and if City want Anderson this summer they are likely to have to return with a bid that changes the conversation.
