Manchester City have parked city rivals United with a £120m bid for Elliot Anderson, but have still had it rejected by Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis. The Greek expects a new record on the ball island, the City management has locked themselves into starting the season with the England international in the squad. A former Tottenham scout believes City will massively overpay if they increase their bid.
The former senior scout for Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham, Bryan King, follows the process with Anderson closely. He has a clear opinion that it is crazy to look up well over £100 million for Anderson.
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Newcastle United sold Anderson to Nottingham Forest for just £35 million in 2024, the midfielder has made great strides since then, but still, King believes.
“He’s a good Premier League player, that’s for sure, and he’s helped Nottingham Forest from being in trouble to becoming a pretty decent football team. He’s a marginal international player that I think the top four or five clubs would certainly be looking at,” King told Football-Insider.
The former scout adds: “I wouldn’t pay £130 million for him. I wouldn’t pay £130 million. I don’t put him in the [Morgan] Rogers class, and that’s who I would compare him to. When you look at players like him, you look at Gallagher who went to Tottenham for £35m in January. You look at [James] Maddison coming back from injury and looking like he might be OK for this season. Anderson, [Adam] Wharton, [Will] Hughes. They are all in that class, says King.
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Historically, offensive players have always attracted much larger sums of money than the players behind them. In recent years, however, the market for central midfielders has exploded, with the likes of Moises Caicedo, Declan Rice and Enzo Fernandez all going for astronomical sums. Anderson is expected to join them in that category, and should break the transfer record in the Premier League, but the former scout believes Henderson is a player worth closer to £100m than City have to spend.
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