Manchester City submitted a second bid worth £122 million for Elliot Anderson, but Nottingham Forest turned down the investment. The club want a British record transfer fee of £125 million before any bonuses for the England midfielder.
City’s offer follows an initial bid of £80 million for the 23-year-old and has £106 million guaranteed, plus £16 million in possible add-ons. The deal would break the club’s record, which paid Aston Villa £100 million for Jack Grealish in August 2021.
At the time, the fee also represented the largest sum ever paid by a British club, although the current milestone belongs to the £125 million Newcastle received from Liverpool for Alexander Isak last summer. This is the base value that Evangelos Marinakis, owner of Forest, understands as necessary to release Anderson.
Manchester United have expressed an interest in trying to outbid their city rivals for the 23-year-old, but it remains unclear whether Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the club’s chief football officer, will authorize a higher offer with the price now so high. There are signs that United may withdraw from the dispute.
As an important piece in Thomas Tuchel’s plans for England, the coach is expected to select Anderson in the opening match of the tournament against Croatia next Wednesday.
Although the German is realistic and knows that the players may need to define possible transfers during the World Cup, he wants this to happen in an organized way so as not to harm the English team’s chances.
It may be for this reason that Hugo Viana, City’s director of football, chose to make the second proposal to Forest eight days before the game against Croatia, to create as little distraction as possible for the player and England. As the offer was rejected, Viana could still come back with a third — and possibly final — proposal before the beginning of next week.
