Manchester City have made a verbal offer of more than £100m for Nottingham Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson.
The bid price was £106 million (€122 million, $142 million), with potential add-ons it could exceed £120 million (€139 million, $160 million).
The England international is set to consider the sale of Forest as the fee set to topple the British record £125m that Liverpool paid Newcastle United for Alexander Isak last summer.
athletic It was previously reported that City had an initial bid for the 23-year-old rejected earlier this month.
Manchester United’s admiration for Anderson is well documented, but they are not in contention at the current financial level.
United are refusing to enter a bidding war, and are instead targeting players they want and focusing on options such as West Ham’s Mateus Fernandes and Bournemouth’s Alex Scott.
Fellow midfielders Declan Rice, Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez have all moved for packages of around £100 million or more in recent years.
Anderson still has three years left on the contract he signed after joining Newcastle United in the summer of 2023, a £35million deal that saw Odysseas Vlachodimos move the other way and which valued the England international at £15million.
He appeared in all 38 of Forest’s Premier League games in 2025–26, scoring four goals and providing four assists. He made his England debut last September and has been a key part of the team since, including being named in Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad and being handed the number 8 shirt for the tournament.
Why does the city want Anderson?
Analysis by Manchester City correspondent Sam Lee
City are generally always in the market for top, English talent for obvious reasons, including home rule and the fact that they are usually proven in the Premier League.
Anderson clearly fits that bill and is seen as a replacement for Bernardo Silva. That Forest scored more touchdowns than any other team in the Premier League last season for a team that is not heavy in possession shows how involved and influential he likes to be. He also showed he has class with his excellent goal in the 2-2 draw at City in March.
City have faced some problems in recent years when not trying to recruit better players than their established stars, for example purchasing Kelvin Phillips and Nico Gonzalez, who to varying degrees were not the relatively cheap options City were hoping for. But with Bernardo gone, City could be aiming for a top talent capable of moving straight into the team and Anderson ticks a lot of boxes.