City line up £120m Anderson move as United decline the bidding war
Manchester City are putting the final touches on a club-record bid for Nottingham Forest's Elliot Anderson, with the fee in the region of £120 million. Manchester United, the other long-standing suitor, have decided not to enter the auction.
From PSR sale to nine-figure midfielder
It has been less than two years since Forest paid Newcastle £35 million for Anderson on the eve of the 2024-25 season, a deal forced through in late June 2024 to ease Newcastle's profit-and-sustainability problems. Forest tied him to a five-year contract on arrival. Newcastle inserted no sell-on clause and no buy-back, which means the next move, whatever the fee, brings them nothing.
Why City are pushing now
Pep Guardiola's midfield is built around Rodri, who is still working back from a groin problem picked up in April, and Bernardo Silva, who has confirmed he will leave the Etihad this summer after nine years and six Premier League titles. Anderson covers the press-and-progress brief Guardiola wants from his number eights, and at 23 he fits the long-term planning model City have been pushing since the 2024 reset.
The numbers behind Forest's price tag are as much physical as positional. Anderson has played 33 Premier League games this season and scored three times. He has covered more total distance than any other player in the division, with Everton's James Garner the only other player past 370 kilometres. He has gone from a Newcastle academy graduate with 44 Premier League appearances to a Thomas Tuchel regular who has started every England game since his September 2025 senior debut.
United's choice and Forest's leverage
United's decision to step away says something about Old Trafford's current spending logic. With Champions League qualification only just secured and a permanent manager still to be appointed, the £120 million ceiling for one midfielder, on top of a wider squad rebuild, was always going to be a stretch. The internal signal has been that recruitment will favour multiple mid-tier signings over one statement deal.
That leaves Forest negotiating with one buyer who can pay the full ask, and not in a hurry. Anderson's contract runs to 2029 and they are still alive in this season's Europa League with a one-goal first-leg lead over Aston Villa. If Forest pull this fee in, it will rank among the largest sums ever paid for a midfielder by an English club. If they do not, they keep one of the best young eights in the league for another year.
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