Elliot Anderson Transfer: Manchester City Targets Nottingham Forest Star

Manchester City are moving fast. Nottingham Forest are standing firm. Somewhere between £80 million and £125 million sits the future of Elliot Anderson.

The Premier League champions have made the 23-year-old England midfielder their priority signing for the summer and, according to reports, are determined to close a deal “as soon as possible” despite seeing their opening bid knocked back by Forest earlier this week. The Midlands club want around £100 million. City’s first offer fell well short.

This is no casual enquiry. City have been tracking Anderson for the best part of a year, with director of football Hugo Viana and incoming manager Enzo Maresca in agreement: the Forest midfielder is the ideal profile to help plug the gap left by Bernardo Silva’s departure from the Etihad Stadium. A box‑to‑box engine, comfortable in tight spaces, with the legs to press and the quality to dictate – he fits the blueprint.

Forest know it, and they are pricing him accordingly.

Forest dig in, City refuse to walk away

The rejection of City’s first proposal has not cooled the pursuit. Far from it. The club remain intent on driving the deal forward at pace, even as they keep one eye on alternatives such as Newcastle United’s Sandro Tonali.

The pressure is already visible in the numbers. Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is understood to be handling negotiations personally from the City Ground. Reports have suggested Forest initially floated a figure as high as £125 million, while City value the transfer closer to £80 million. The public line from Forest now centres on a £100 million valuation, leaving a sizeable gap for both sides to bridge in the coming days.

Yet City are not acting like a club ready to back down. The plan is to have their main midfield signing in place before Maresca’s first pre-season gets going in July. That urgency is shaping every step of this chase.

Anderson’s stance and England’s green light

On the player’s side, the signals point in one direction. Anderson has indicated his preference to join Manchester City despite rival interest from Manchester United. That alone strengthens City’s hand in a negotiation that will likely come down to structure, add-ons and timing rather than pure availability.

There is another telling detail. England manager Thomas Tuchel has already allowed Anderson to undergo a Manchester City medical during the FIFA World Cup in North America. You do not grant that kind of access to a player at the heart of your national plans unless a move is both serious and advanced enough to merit the disruption.

City, for their part, have seized on that opening. Transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano reports that the champions will try to close the deal as quickly as possible, with the club eager to wrap up their primary midfield target well before the squad regroups.

The stakes for Maresca’s new era

Maresca steps into the job with a clear tactical vision and a significant hole in his midfield. Bernardo Silva’s exit has removed not just creativity, but rhythm and control from City’s engine room. Anderson has been identified as the man to restore that balance, to carry the ball through lines, to press high, to knit together the phases of play that define City at their best.

Tonali has been scouted as a serious alternative should negotiations with Forest become impossible to resolve. Yet all indications point to Anderson remaining the first choice. City do not want this saga dragging into August, with Maresca’s training ground plans hinging on who patrols the centre of the pitch.

So the scene is set: a champion desperate to arm a new manager, a selling club determined to extract every last pound, and a player already leaning towards sky blue. The only question now is whether the gap between £80 million and £100 million proves to be a hurdle, or just the final step before City unveil the midfielder they have chased for a year.