Nottingham Forest are braced for a summer bidding war over Elliot Anderson, with Manchester City said to be in front and Manchester United also in the frame. Forest are reported to want around £115m for the midfielder, a figure that would go past the £105m Arsenal paid for Declan Rice. Anderson arrived from Newcastle United in summer 2024 for £35m.
Why Forest believe the price is justified
The valuation is not built on reputation alone. Anderson has made 38 Premier League appearances for Forest this season and logged 3,357 league minutes, which is a serious workload for a player only two seasons into his Forest spell. He has also scored four Premier League goals and holds a 7.34 league rating.
There is a broader reason Forest think they can set the bar so high. Anderson has already become central to their side, and his value has risen with his England profile as well, with seven caps to his name. BBC reporting says City are leading the race, while United remain interested, so Forest are talking about a sale from a position of leverage rather than panic.
Vitor Pereira has not hidden the club's preference. “What I can say to you is that the club wants to keep him playing for us, for sure,” he said to Metro. He also added, “The market is the market and everything can happen.”
The public stance is pretty clear: Forest want to keep him, but they want to be paid properly if the market forces the issue. If this does turn into a move, it will start from a very high number and with City still looking like the likelier destination.
City have the edge, but Forest are not blinking
Pereira has also been open about Anderson's ceiling. “He has the talent to be one of the top, top of the top,” he said. That is not the language of a manager trying to talk down a sale. It is the language of a club trying to protect an asset while also making the market understand exactly how highly it is priced.
Forest's own situation helps explain the stance. They finished 16th in the Premier League and do not have European football next season, so the club are weighing a rebuild as much as a retention battle. The BBC report also says Pereira believes Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White deserve “the top of the world”.
Anderson himself is focused on England, not the noise around his future. “Obviously we've got the World Cup this summer so all my eyes are on that. Playing for England, that's all I'm thinking about at the moment,” he said. For now, the next move belongs to the clubs, and Forest are the ones setting the price.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →
