Elliot Anderson | Athletic: United's main target

Red00012 said:
Let’s hope Forest go down , it may help the transfer negotiation a little bit
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Won’t help much because we won’t be the only team bidding. Also don’t think we’ll get him. Seems city bound.
 
gold said:
Won’t help much because we won’t be the only team bidding. Also don’t think we’ll get him. Seems city bound.
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If Forest go down and City get suitably punished, he would then still be playing in the Championship.
 
gold said:
Won’t help much because we won’t be the only team bidding. Also don’t think we’ll get him. Seems city bound.
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FortunaUtd said:
Doesn't mean we should not be trying hard to get him.
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We should try hard to sign someone like Anderson, but the truth is, we are not as attractive destination for players(in this particular moment in time) as we once were.

United is now kinda forced to play moneyball, in order to slowly rebuild itself and it's image and get back to the top/seriously contend again. Liverpool did it to perfection in early to mid 2010s to get out of mediocrity. So many (relatively)cheap, undervalued signings. Salah(the ultimate jackpot), Mane, Firmino, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Coutinho and Suarez(sold to Barcelona for big profit), Matip...

Arsenal did the rebuild in a similar fashion as well. Their title challenging squad of 2022/23 didn't have "premium" signings. Some cast offs from City(Jesus, Zinchenko), Chelsea(Jorginho), Real Madrid(Odegaard) etc. Most expensive players there were Ben White and Partey for like €50,60m.

They wouldn't be able to sign Declan Rice for €120m if they didn't make significant progress before that. Similar situation with Liverpool and Isak/Wirtz, even Van Dijk/Alisson probably.

What I want to say is that, signings like Anderson(who basically every PL team would like to have in their team), Diomande etc. may be out of our reach, for now, and we need to hit on smarter, less "mainstream"/in demand signings to get into the position to sign hottest prospects on the market again.

Returning to Champions League again after 2 year absence would be a good start...
 
We should bid 90m pounds just to get City to bid slightly higher and commit the bulk of their spending on him.

Also if the charges against City are upheld, they might not be able to have a few transfer seasons.
 
matherto said:
Has there ever been a source of this supposedly City bound thing?
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Just random journalists but it seems likely really as the interest seems real from city’s side as well. Also he’s apparently following city on social media since at least a few months back for whatever it’s worth. I wouldn’t get my hopes up anyway.
 
There seems too much chatter for him not to be going to City. Only things that might scupper it are 115 guilty verdicts and if Pep goes. Latter might be a big motivation for him wanting to go there.
 
Bondi77 said:
He was overpriced when Newcastle bought him as Newcastle have trouble in attracting top players.
I have not seen anything to convince me that his value has increased whatsoever.
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They’re still not going to sell him for the same price or even for cheaper. They will want more money, let’s be realistic
 
IrwinwasbetterthanCarlos said:
There seems too much chatter for him not to be going to City. Only things that might scupper it are 115 guilty verdicts and if Pep goes. Latter might be a big motivation for him wanting to go there.
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Agreed, there is not a snowball's chance that we get Anderson.
 
golden_blunder said:
They’re still not going to sell him for the same price or even for cheaper. They will want more money, let’s be realistic
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They pay over the odds for players just like we do and that is why we normally make a loss on players.
 
philippexyz said:
We should try hard to sign someone like Anderson, but the truth is, we are not as attractive destination for players(in this particular moment in time) as we once were.

United is now kinda forced to play moneyball, in order to slowly rebuild itself and it's image and get back to the top/seriously contend again. Liverpool did it to perfection in early to mid 2010s to get out of mediocrity. So many (relatively)cheap, undervalued signings. Salah(the ultimate jackpot), Mane, Firmino, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Coutinho and Suarez(sold to Barcelona for big profit), Matip...

Arsenal did the rebuild in a similar fashion as well. Their title challenging squad of 2022/23 didn't have "premium" signings. Some cast offs from City(Jesus, Zinchenko), Chelsea(Jorginho), Real Madrid(Odegaard) etc. Most expensive players there were Ben White and Partey for like €50,60m.

They wouldn't be able to sign Declan Rice for €120m if they didn't make significant progress before that. Similar situation with Liverpool and Isak/Wirtz, even Van Dijk/Alisson probably.

What I want to say is that, signings like Anderson(who basically every PL team would like to have in their team), Diomande etc. may be out of our reach, for now, and we need to hit on smarter, less "mainstream"/in demand signings to get into the position to sign hottest prospects on the market again.

Returning to Champions League again after 2 year absence would be a good start..
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United were beating sides with CL to players last summer after finishing 15th - Anderson may be out of reach, but Utd, if they managed to pick performances up enough to guarantee a healthy CL-place finish, should absolutely back themselves to try and beat Liverpol to Diomande.

If there's Moneyball involved it's because they probably can't afford 4 signings at the same price (and there are definitely players they can get for 35-40m who would improve the CM pool alongside a 'big' signing) without further sales in addition to the scheduled one. United are still a draw, especially if they show signs of being consistently competent for 1/2 a season and then pull off one key signing to get things rolling. People look at Arsenal and can see how quickly a side can go from 8th (and worse at times that season under Arteta) to title-challengers, just with the right 2-3 players and a top youngster or two coming through.
 
philippexyz said:
We should try hard to sign someone like Anderson, but the truth is, we are not as attractive destination for players(in this particular moment in time) as we once were.

United is now kinda forced to play moneyball, in order to slowly rebuild itself and it's image and get back to the top/seriously contend again. Liverpool did it to perfection in early to mid 2010s to get out of mediocrity. So many (relatively)cheap, undervalued signings. Salah(the ultimate jackpot), Mane, Firmino, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Coutinho and Suarez(sold to Barcelona for big profit), Matip...

Arsenal did the rebuild in a similar fashion as well. Their title challenging squad of 2022/23 didn't have "premium" signings. Some cast offs from City(Jesus, Zinchenko), Chelsea(Jorginho), Real Madrid(Odegaard) etc. Most expensive players there were Ben White and Partey for like €50,60m.

They wouldn't be able to sign Declan Rice for €120m if they didn't make significant progress before that. Similar situation with Liverpool and Isak/Wirtz, even Van Dijk/Alisson probably.

What I want to say is that, signings like Anderson(who basically every PL team would like to have in their team), Diomande etc. may be out of our reach, for now, and we need to hit on smarter, less "mainstream"/in demand signings to get into the position to sign hottest prospects on the market again.

Returning to Champions League again after 2 year absence would be a good start...
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This gets said every year and pretty much every year we beat out other top teams to big signings even when we're crap.

No need for the small club mentality.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
This gets said every year and pretty much every year we beat out other top teams to big signings even when we're crap.

No need for the small club mentality.
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I sometimes wish the powers that be actually adopt a "small club mentality" and look for bargains but given our recruitment incompetence we could pretty easily go the Spurs way.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
This gets said every year and pretty much every year we beat out other top teams to big signings even when we're crap.

No need for the small club mentality.
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It's not so simple. Last summer we tried to sign Delap, Ekitike and Gyokeres and they went to Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, respectively(we were lucky to "miss out" on Delap and Gyokeres, thankfully). Just recently we tried to sign Semenyo and he chose City instead.

Upcoming summer is going to be interesting in order to see how big of a pull United currently has, assuming we manage to qualify for UCL.

Teja said:
I sometimes wish the powers that be actually adopt a "small club mentality" and look for bargains but given our recruitment incompetence we could pretty easily go the Spurs way.
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Yes, I also suspect that we don't have the recruitment prowess, capability to play moneyball("small club mentality") - not enough competent people in recruitment department still. FSG at Liverpool were moneyball experts(proved it in baseball before with Red Sox), Arsenal also managed to pull it off.
 
philippexyz said:
It's not so simple. Last summer we tried to sign Delap, Ekitike and Gyokeres and they went to Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, respectively(we were lucky to "miss out" on Delap and Gyokeres, thankfully). Just recently we tried to sign Semenyo and he chose City instead.

Upcoming summer is going to be interesting in order to see how big of a pull United currently has, assuming we manage to qualify for UCL.



Yes, I also suspect that we don't have the recruitment prowess, capability to play moneyball("small club mentality") - not enough competent people in recruitment department still. FSG at Liverpool were moneyball experts(proved it in baseball before with Red Sox), Arsenal also managed to pull it off.
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United didn't go in properly for Ekitike - you can argue that was because we were told he'd prefer Liverpool, but it wasn't Newcastle 'being spurned for BM' levels. You also had a United who'd finished 15th and had no CL, vs a Liverpool side that had won the league. Competition is (hopefully) a lot more narrow now in terms of difference of league places or, when it comes to Liverpool etc ( all being well) we finish above them.

There were briefings that Delap had been told by Tuchel he needed , ideally, CL football to become Kane's understudy. He had a very specific reason then to choose Chelsea, despite how relatively chaotic they are as a project. CL is important because of bonuses you get as a player for playing in it, qualifying for it, but also in terms of endorsements. Finally, it has a 'symbolic' status in terms of being a top-table footballer, above even any club's residual prestige. If United qualify and seem like they have a plan to qualify again, then they can compete with pretty much every side that isn't (for S American players in particular) Madrid & maybe Barca (although Barca are in financial straits anyway).

At this stage, the only thing United could do to get an advantage for players, beyond securing CL, is to throw money at Ancelotti, who symbolises 'will definitely qualify for the CL, will challenge for stuff' even more than a Nagelsmann or Xavi or Alonso, but that's not a long-term plan and he's probably not inclined to take on the stress anyway.
 
Bondi77 said:
They pay over the odds for players just like we do and that is why we normally make a loss on players.
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They paid 40mil possibly rising to 53mil for one of the best upcoming young midfielders who was touted as the next Pirlo. Did they really overpay for him? Supposedly valued at 82 mil now.
 
Andersons Dietician said:
They paid 40mil possibly rising to 53mil for one of the best upcoming young midfielders who was touted as the next Pirlo. Did they really overpay for him? Supposedly valued at 82 mil now.
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70mil Euros was widely reported which is quite a bit more than what you are suggesting.
Do you seriously think he has got game that would come close to that of Pirlo?
 
Bondi77 said:
70mil Euros was widely reported which is quite a bit more than what you are suggesting.
Do you seriously think he has got game that would come close to that of Pirlo?
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I mean I had a quick Google search and found it was £40 mil, possibly rising to 53mil, It’s also why there was a fuss on here when they signed him because they got him for £40 mil whilst we were buying someone can’t recall who for a much larger fee.

I’m not saying he was Pirlo but that is who he was compared to when he was coming through as a youngster by Italian media and pundits.

Personally I think he would be great for us and being honest I’d maybe prefer him over Anderson but either would be good
 
Andersons Dietician said:
I mean I had a quick Google search and found it was £40 mil, possibly rising to 53mil, It’s also why there was a fuss on here when they signed him because they got him for £40 mil whilst we were buying someone can’t recall who for a much larger fee.

I’m not saying he was Pirlo but that is who he was compared to when he was coming through as a youngster by Italian media and pundits.

Personally I think he would be great for us and being honest I’d maybe prefer him over Anderson but either would be good
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It was 70M euros (60M pounds), reported by Ornstein, Romano and other journalists.

 
Andersons Dietician said:
I mean I had a quick Google search and found it was £40 mil, possibly rising to 53mil, It’s also why there was a fuss on here when they signed him because they got him for £40 mil whilst we were buying someone can’t recall who for a much larger fee.

I’m not saying he was Pirlo but that is who he was compared to when he was coming through as a youngster by Italian media and pundits.

Personally I think he would be great for us and being honest I’d maybe prefer him over Anderson but either would be good
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The Google search I just did was 70mil Euros and no mention of 43mil quid.
I am not saying he is a bad player but as far as comparisons to Pirlo then I can only assume they were physical.
 
Bondi77 said:
The Google search I just did was 70mil Euros and no mention of 43mil quid.
I am not saying he is a bad player but as far as comparisons to Pirlo then I can only assume they were physical.
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There were a lot of Pirlo comparisons when he went to Milan. He came through as a highly rated, large nosed, lank haired central midfielder at Brescia then signed for Milan (admittedly, not via Inter as Pirlo did). There was lots of “new Pirlo” chat in Italy at the time, and if I recall, they tried to play him in the same way and he was a disappointment at first, til they realised the similarities were all superficial and he was totally different type of player.
 
it sounds like he will be the main transfer within the Premier League this summer, I presume we have a plan B in case he opts to go elsewhere and we aren't making a deadline day loan bid for Rabiot instead.
 
Reds Under The Bed said:
it sounds like he will be the main transfer within the Premier League this summer, I presume we have a plan B in case he opts to go elsewhere and we aren't making a deadline day loan bid for Rabiot instead.
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Anderson is particularly appealing due to his wide skillset which allowed him to play across different systems and ideologies. Unfortunately it seems that he's moving to City. The alternatives seem to be more specialized players. Wharton for example is a totally different player to let's say a Baleba.

In my opinion we need to sort the manager's issue as soon as possible which in turn would give us a clear idea of what we need. Only then we can realistically sell our project to possible candidates.
 
devilish said:
Anderson is particularly appealing due to his wide skillset which allowed him to play across different systems and ideologies. Unfortunately it seems that he's moving to City. The alternatives seem to be more specialized players. Wharton for example is a totally different player to let's say a Baleba.

In my opinion we need to sort the manager's issue as soon as possible which in turn would give us a clear idea of what we need. Only then we can realistically sell our project to possible candidates.
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Why does it seem that he's moving to City? I've seen nothing concrete from any reliable source. Romano tweeted that City are prioritizing him, and that United haven't decided which target to pursue yet. The Athletic has said Anderson is our #1 target. So far, it's all just speculation as far as I can tell
 
Rainy nights in Stoke said:
Why does it seem that he's moving to City? I've seen nothing concrete from any reliable source. Romano tweeted that City are prioritizing him, and that United haven't decided which target to pursue yet. The Athletic has said Anderson is our #1 target. So far, it's all just speculation as far as I can tell
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Its been reported by numerous sources including Romano who gave the impression that they had done much more ground work with him then we do. For the record I wish that we sign the guy. However I am old enough to read the signing on the wall as well. I hope I am wrong though.
 
devilish said:
The alternatives seem to be more specialized players. Wharton for example is a totally different player to let's say a Baleba.
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Tonali is a little closer in profile to Anderson. M. Fernandes too.
 
devilish said:
Its been reported by numerous sources including Romano who gave the impression that they had done much more ground work with him then we do. For the record I wish that we sign the guy. However I am old enough to read the signing on the wall as well. I hope I am wrong though.
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They are getting dumped out of the CL. If they lose the PL as well and Pep fecks off then you’d be hard pressed to say City is more well positioned than us trophies wise going forward. If Anderson chooses them over us then it’d be because of our new wage policy and I’d say good riddance to that. That’s before we get to 115 and all the associated taints with that club and their ‘success’.
 
devilish said:
Its been reported by numerous sources including Romano who gave the impression that they had done much more ground work with him then we do. For the record I wish that we sign the guy. However I am old enough to read the signing on the wall as well. I hope I am wrong though.
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Below is a transcript from Romano's youtube video on the topic.

"What I can tell you is that a serious target very high on the short list of Manchester City for the summer transfer window is Elliot Anderson the midfielder former Newcastle player now at Nottingham Forest. Still nothing done, still nothing decided. It will depend on Forest Premier League or not. It will depend on the pricing. It will depend on the player several things. But Manchester City have already started thinking about midfielders short list
and in this short list Elliot Anderson is a name that is absolutely high. So he's one of the player under considerations for the midfielder role. And I would say from my understanding he's in the top three probably top two of targets for Manchester City this summer in terms of midfielders because City will sign a right back. Let's see what else is going to happen. But Elliot Anderson is a top target for Manchester City. So I expect City to make moves for the player in the next weeks and months because he's super appreciated. He's not the only one. There is at least another important candidate in the short list. But Anderson is for sure a target for Manchester City, a player they are considering internally with maximum respect for Nottingham Forest for the player. Now it's an important moment for Forest and for the player. But City want Elliot Anderson as one of the potential targets. He's also a player appreciated by Manchester United. But for Man United, there are even more things to clarify before they go in for the midfielder they want. First, who is going to be the manager? Second, Champions League football or not? And then the budget for the midfielder, same as Manchester City to understand how much nothing forest want for Anderson."

I don't see anything here suggesting it is remotely close be being a foregone conclusion that he's going to City, or even that they have done any groundwork with his camp. I'm sure they have had feelers out and talked to his reps, as have we I'm sure.
 
InfiniteBoredom said:
They are getting dumped out of the CL. If they lose the PL as well and Pep fecks off then you’d be hard pressed to say City is more well positioned than us trophies wise going forward. If Anderson chooses them over us then it’d be because of our new wage policy and I’d say good riddance to that. That’s before we get to 115 and all the associated taints with that club and their ‘success’.
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I was never a big fan of giving silly salaries to old players, injury prone players or players with the wrong attitude. I don't think Anderson qualify as such player. Quite frankly I'd rather see money going for top players then to service the Glazers debt or to sack managers ineos had just extending the contract to
 
Rainy nights in Stoke said:


Below is a transcript from Romano's youtube video on the topic.

"What I can tell you is that a serious target very high on the short list of Manchester City for the summer transfer window is Elliot Anderson the midfielder former Newcastle player now at Nottingham Forest. Still nothing done, still nothing decided. It will depend on Forest Premier League or not. It will depend on the pricing. It will depend on the player several things. But Manchester City have already started thinking about midfielders short list
and in this short list Elliot Anderson is a name that is absolutely high. So he's one of the player under considerations for the midfielder role. And I would say from my understanding he's in the top three probably top two of targets for Manchester City this summer in terms of midfielders because City will sign a right back. Let's see what else is going to happen. But Elliot Anderson is a top target for Manchester City. So I expect City to make moves for the player in the next weeks and months because he's super appreciated. He's not the only one. There is at least another important candidate in the short list. But Anderson is for sure a target for Manchester City, a player they are considering internally with maximum respect for Nottingham Forest for the player. Now it's an important moment for Forest and for the player. But City want Elliot Anderson as one of the potential targets. He's also a player appreciated by Manchester United. But for Man United, there are even more things to clarify before they go in for the midfielder they want. First, who is going to be the manager? Second, Champions League football or not? And then the budget for the midfielder, same as Manchester City to understand how much nothing forest want for Anderson."

I don't see anything here suggesting it is remotely close be being a foregone conclusion that he's going to City, or even that they have done any groundwork with his camp. I'm sure they have had feelers out and talked to his reps, as have we I'm sure.
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Maybe it's because I know Italian and how they think (Maltese people translate their thoughts in English in a similar way) but the way he worded it gives me the idea that he is closer to signing with City then with us. There's also rumors that they are ready to go big on salary and we're not. I hope we end up signing him
 
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