Man City Eye U-Turn as Forest Reject £120m Anderson Offer

Nottingham Forest have rejected a club-record £120m offer from Manchester City for Elliot Anderson, and the Premier League runners-up are now considering whether to walk away from their top midfield target. The bid, structured as £100m up-front and £20m in add-ons, was turned down by owner Evangelos Marinakis, who is holding out for a fee paid in full to eclipse the British transfer record set by Alexander Isak’s move to Liverpool last summer. City are described as ‘not prepared’ to enter a bidding war over a 23-year-old who has yet to play in the Champions League.

Anderson, 23, wants the Etihad. Manchester United, the other club in the conversation, are described by BBC Sport as effectively out of the running. BBC Sport also reports Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali is on City’s longer list, but the priority, in public, is the Anderson move.

The £120m Rejection That Started a Standoff

City lodged a second club-record offer for Anderson. The bid totalled £120 million, broken down into £100m up-front and £20m in add-ons per the full 12 June transfer roundup, after an initial £80m opening was rejected earlier in the window. In euros, the offer sat at around €139m, and would have made Anderson the most expensive Englishman in history.

The Guardian’s version of the offer reads slightly differently. It places the second bid at £122m, comprising £106m guaranteed and £16m in potential add-ons, with the same £80m opening. Both numbers would have broken City’s previous club record, the £100m paid to Aston Villa for Jack Grealish in August 2021. Forest’s reply was the same in both tellings: no.

City had been chasing Anderson for months. Bernardo Silva’s exit from the Etihad at the end of his contract opened the slot, and incoming manager Enzo Maresca made the midfielder his top target for the summer window. The Mirror reports the chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak believes the offer already on the table is fair for a player who has yet to play in the Champions League.

Hugo Viana, City’s director of football, made the second bid eight days before England’s World Cup opener against Croatia on 17 June. The Guardian reports he timed it to minimise distraction for the player, and says he may return with a third, and possibly final, offer by the end of this week.

Why Forest Is Holding Out for a British Record

Forest’s target is a number City did not pick. The British transfer record is the £125m Liverpool paid Newcastle for Isak in September, a deal the Guardian says is the basic fee Marinakis is understood to want for Anderson before any add-ons. FootballTransfers frames the same marker in euros at €145m. The maths for City is direct: matching the basic fee would still leave room for the £20m in add-ons City had been willing to pay, but it would reset the club’s own ceiling by 25%.

What changes between the Isak deal and an Anderson deal is Forest’s market position. Liverpool were buying from Newcastle, a club that had already accepted the broad shape of the deal. Forest are selling to a player with a longer contract runway and a seller’s market, and the negotiating room on price runs against City.

City’s ‘Not Prepared’ Line and What It Costs

The ‘not prepared’ line also caps City’s structural room. £100m up-front and £20m in add-ons is already a club-record layout in cash, before add-ons convert to fee. To reach the £125m basic Forest want, the up-front component alone would need to grow by £25m, with the add-ons either dropping off or stacking on top. Both moves cost City either cash flexibility this summer or future obligations tied to a player with no Champions League minutes.

BBC Sport reports the club have also been monitoring Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali as a longer-term alternative, and United’s wider midfield search and Anderson’s place in it shows the same supply problem from the other side of Manchester. The Mirror reports City chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak is not prepared to get into a bidding war over a 23-year-old who has yet to play in the Champions League. The FootballTransfers write-up uses the same language, describing the club as ‘not prepared’ to escalate.

That posture has a history: the chairman walked away from the Virgil van Dijk deal in 2018 rather than meet Southampton’s price, and Liverpool signed the Dutchman the same window. The 2018 case is the data Forest’s owner is working with.

Viana’s third bid, if it lands, will land fast. The Guardian says the director of football is working to a deadline of ‘by the end of the week’ and frames the offer as the final one. After that, the negotiating option becomes: shift targets, accept defeat, or test Forest’s resolve with the World Cup in full flow.

What Forest Stand to Lose If the Deal Dies

The room that lets Forest say no is also the room they would have to live with if City walk. Anderson arrived from Newcastle for £35m in 2024, and his resale value is the profit line on a club that reached the Europa League semi-finals and avoided relegation last season despite having four managers. A sale at the British record would book a windfall on the books, but only if the buyer is found. The Guardian reports the player has not threatened to force a move, and his World Cup commitments give Forest a window of guaranteed availability through the tournament.

The public record around the move still contains no completed deal. The Mirror’s report carries the player’s read in his own manager’s words. Tuchel faced questions on the bid the night Anderson started a 3-0 win over Costa Rica, and his answer ran longer than the question.

He’s a top player. There’s nothing more to say, he’s the full package. I’m happy that he’s with us on that kind of level and he’s a key player for us.

Thomas Tuchel, the England manager, said those words on Wednesday night, the same evening Anderson started the 3-0 win over Costa Rica in England’s final World Cup warm-up.

What the £120m Buys

The midfield City are trying to restock has a specific shape. Bernardo Silva’s contract runs out this summer, the only senior midfielder to leave on a free transfer, and the club’s previous record outlay was the £100m paid to Aston Villa for Grealish in August 2021. Anderson is the one profile of similar age on the public shortlist, and BBC Sport reports personal terms are not an issue between the two sides.

The numbers behind the offer are real. Anderson has 92 appearances and 6 goals for Forest since his £35m move from Newcastle in 2024, and BBC Sport reports he was one of Forest’s star performers in the season they reached the Europa League semi-finals and avoided relegation under four different managers. The Mirror’s write-up frames the move as a long-term Rodri succession plan, with the midfielder himself the subject of return-to-Spain speculation in the same window.

The international picture lines up with the club picture. Anderson started England’s 3-0 friendly win over Costa Rica, and Tuchel is expected to name him in the side to face Croatia. The Mirror’s Tuchel quotes call Anderson a ‘key player’ for England and a ‘top player,’ language the manager used while declining to address the bid directly. The point of buying Anderson is the player who delivered that performance, and the club’s view, per FootballTransfers, is that the offer is fair for a young player ‘with plenty to prove’ and who hasn’t played in the Champions League.

Three Other Blockbusters in the Same Window

The Anderson standoff is one of three transfer sagas running in parallel as the window opens. FootballTransfers’ roundup captures the others at the same hour City were preparing their second offer, and the price tags range from a release-clause discount to a British record fight.

Real Madrid, working under a new manager in Jose Mourinho, are chasing a left-sided defender as a David Alaba replacement. TEAMtalk identifies Josko Gvardiol as the ‘most attainable’ option, ahead of Chelsea’s Levi Colwill and Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori. Mourinho wants versatility on the left, with Gvardiol’s profile covering multiple roles.

Newcastle, in turn, are closing in on Osasuna’s Victor Munoz to replace Anthony Gordon, opening talks at around €35m against a release clause of €40m, with Real Madrid holding a buy-back option worth around €10m. Bayern Munich, meanwhile, are set to win the race for Frankfurt’s Nathaniel Brown at a fee of around €65m. The structure of the payments is the only point of negotiation in Brown’s deal, per FootballTransfers. Real Madrid could still take 50% of any Munoz fee, around €17.5m, in lieu of exercising the buy-back clause.

The pattern across the three is familiar: a buyer’s top target, a seller’s preferred structure, and a number one party treats as final while the other treats as a starting point. For City, the other targets on the Maresca shortlist are not in the same bracket, and the public list, per BBC Sport, is short.

Three parallel sagas in the same window:

• Anderson to Manchester City: £120m bid rejected; Forest want a British record fee paid in full.
• Gvardiol to Real Madrid: Mourinho’s top target per TEAMtalk; Chelsea and Arsenal unwilling to sell their left-sided options.
• Munoz to Newcastle: Talks opened at ~€35m against a €40m release clause; Real Madrid hold a €10m buy-back option.

The Calendar Hugo Viana Is Working To

Tuchel’s Costa Rica press conference gave City their first public window into the player’s state of mind. The Mirror’s report quotes the England manager calling Anderson ‘level-headed’ and adding that his assistant coach had spoken to him about the bid while Tuchel himself would not. ‘He seems not affected… in reality nothing changes. He just changes the club, that’s the rules of the game. Hopefully he just stays the same, a humble, determined, hungry football player.’ Anderson started the Costa Rica friendly and is in line to start against Croatia on 17 June.

Tuchel said the bid should push the player, calling it ‘proof of what he’s capable to do and what level he can perform.’ Per The Guardian, Viana may return with a third and possibly final offer by the end of the week, and the World Cup opener on June 17 sets the public clock.

• £120 million: City’s second offer for Anderson, £100m up-front + £20m add-ons
• 92 appearances: Anderson’s tally for Nottingham Forest since 2024
• £35 million: Forest’s 2024 signing fee from Newcastle
• 17 June: England’s World Cup opener vs Croatia