Nottingham Forest are expecting a lot of interest in Elliot Anderson this summer and they will let him go, but only for a huge amount of money.
The 23-year-old moved to the City Ground from Newcastle United in the summer of 2024 for £35m and has been a star performer ever since.
The midfielder has racked up 91 appearances for Forest in just two seasons and has also made an impact on the international stage with England.
Anderson has seven caps to his name and is expected to start alongside Declan Rice in Thomas Tuchel’s midfield at the World Cup this summer.
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Unsurprisingly bigger clubs are coming calling, with Manchester United and Manchester City the most heavily linked with a summer move for the Three Lions star.
There is every chance there could be interest from elsewhere as well, especially if Anderson impresses at the World Cup.
Nottingham Forest intend to more than treble their money on Anderson and make him the most expensive English player ever, surpassing Declan Rice’s transfer fee of £105m when he swapped West Ham for Arsenal.
The Telegraph report that see the fee Chelsea paid Brighton for Moises Caicedo in 2023 as the figure they should be aiming to sell Anderson for. A whopping £115m.
Whether they will get to that number or not is yet to be seen, with manager Vitor Pereira saying they will not be bullied into letting Anderson go as they want to keep him.
Asked if he feared Anderson could be poached by a top club earlier this month, Pereira said: ‘I don’t have the answers. The market is the market and everything can happen.
‘What I can say to you is that the club wants to keep him playing for us, for sure.
‘The club wants to keep almost all the players because this is a very good group with quality and character and we have a very good base for next season.’
Pereira talked up Anderson’s qualities, saying that given the freedom he is capable of anything.
‘He has the talent to be one of the top, top of the top,’ he said. ‘Every time he can score more goals, he can take a little bit more risk in the last third because he has a very good shot.
‘It depends on the system because if we play in the system where we give him total freedom to build play and to appear, I think he can do everything, but in our system, we are playing with two midfielders. It’s a system that doesn’t give him total freedom to create.
‘He needs to understand when the other ones loses the position that he cannot lose the position.
‘But he has a lot of talent, for sure. He’s young and he will fly with big wings.’
Anderson has given little away on his future, but said in March that his only focus will be the World Cup until England’s involvement is no more.
‘Obviously we’ve got the World Cup this summer so all my eyes are on that,’ he said. ‘Playing for England, that’s all I’m thinking about at the moment.’