Elliot Anderson has emerged as one of the defining transfer stories of the window. Manchester City opened early contact with the 23-year-old while Manchester United remain active, creating a genuine duel for the Nottingham Forest midfielder.<\/p>\n
\u201cManchester City already started talking with the agents of the player, but Manchester United remain in conversations for Elliot Anderson,\u201d Fabrizio Romano revealed. \u201cManchester United are not giving up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know that Manchester City started their plan to sign the player a long time ago, but until the deal is done, Man Utd want to be there. Man Utd want to try, and they believe that having the opportunity eventually to offer Champions League football to the player could be important in order to try to get closer to Manchester City in this race.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what can make the difference is the negotiation with Nottingham Forest, and who\u2019s going to pay what Nottingham Forest want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reports suggest a fee in the region of $135 million (\u00a3100 million) is likely. The choice facing Anderson is clear: at Old Trafford he could step into a midfield that will be reworked this summer. Casemiro is due to leave and Manuel Ugarte is likely to follow, leaving Kobbie Mainoo as perhaps the only senior midfielder who will remain. Under Michael Carrick the Red Devils have regained cohesion and stand close to sealing Champions League qualification, which would bolster United\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n
City offer a different proposition. They cannot promise an undisputed starting berth in a star-studded squad but they can offer a stronger record of recent success. Even in a relatively down year, City are on course for domestic honours: the Carabao Cup is secured, they are in the FA Cup semi-final and remain in the Premier League title race. Pep Guardiola\u2019s contract runs until 2027, though there is speculation over his longer-term future. Guardiola\u2019s work with midfielders over the past two decades is an obvious draw for Anderson.<\/p>\n
Carrick shares a local connection with Anderson, both products of Wallsend Boys Club, which may influence the decision. With Chelsea and Liverpool also linked, Anderson may wait to see how negotiations progress, but Manchester remains the most likely destination based on this season\u2019s trajectory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elliot Anderson must choose between guaranteed starts at United and the trophy-laden path at City. .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1056,1083,298,1163],"tags":[1446,983,1047],"class_list":["post-12422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-city","category-man-utd","category-nottingham-forest","category-transfers","tag-academy","tag-agents","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}