Manchester City have made a second bid worth £122m for Elliot Anderson which has been rejected by Nottingham Forest, who want a British record transfer fee of £125m before any add-ons for the England midfielder.
City’s offer follows an initial bid of £80m for the 23-year-old and is worth a guaranteed £106m plus £16m in potential add-ons. This would break the club’s record transfer of £100m paid to Aston Villa for Jack Grealish in August 2021.
That was also the highest fee paid by a British club, though this mark is now the £125m Newcastle received from Liverpool for Alexander Isak last summer. This is the basic fee Evangelos Marinakis, Forest’s owner, is understood to want for Anderson.
Manchester United have been intent on trying to beat their cross-town rivals to Anderson, but whether Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the club’s football chief, gives the green light to an effort to outbid City with the fee now so high remains to be seen. It is understood United may end their interest.
Thomas Tuchel is expected to name Anderson to start in England’s opening World Cup match against Croatia on Wednesday. While the German is a realist and understands that players may need to firm up any potential move during the tournament, he wants this to be done in an orderly fashion so as not to disrupt England’s prospects.
This may be why Hugo Viana, City’s director of football, decided to make the second bid for Anderson to Forest eight days before the Croatia game in order to cause the player and England the least possible distraction. As this has now been turned down, Viana may now return with a third – and possibly final – offer by the end of the week.
