Paul Parker compares £116M Man City signing Elliot Anderson to Paul Scholes in glowing verdict | OneFootball

Former Manchester United full-back Paul Parker has delivered a glowing verdict on Manchester City’s club record £116 million signing Elliot Anderson.

Anderson has penned a five-year deal at the Etihad Stadium and will reportedly earn in the region of £300,000-per-week as he joins forces with newly-appointed City manager Enzo Maresca in England’s north-west.

The 23-year-old’s arrival marks the start of a new era at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City embark upon life beyond Pep Guardiola, who stepped down as Blues boss at the end of last season.

The deal required the intervention of City CEO Ferran Soriano to finalise after owner Evangelos Marinakis had threatened to walk away from negotiations, and one that established a new British transfer record in the process.

Parker: Anderson is “a little sniper” and “a different version of Paul Scholes”

Speaking to PariuriX.com, former Manchester United and England defender Paul Parker said: “The good thing about Anderson is that you don’t look for him. You’re not looking for him to go and do anything. He’s very clinical in everything he does.

“He’s very clean and tidy and he runs across the grass like he’s wearing slippers. In my opinion, he’s like a little sniper. He’s an assassin in what he does. He doesn’t show any aggression, but he is aggressive in what he does in the modern game and the way that he plays. I’m sure opponents talk about someone like him.

“He’s a different version of Paul Scholes in the way he plays. Scholes was known because of his goals but Scholes did his job, which he was very, very good at. And I think Anderson is exactly the same, exactly the same in what he does.

“All of a sudden now you would say an England side can’t do without him in that midfield. The headliners in the team would miss him if he wasn’t there. Now he is moving to Manchester City who are always looking to achieve, and all of a sudden his game will improve because there’s more players who will be in the same frame of mind as what he’s in.

“The hardest bit is to go and show that consistency week in, week out. I don’t think there’ll be a problem just by his whole manner which tells you that he’s going to go further.”

What does Parker’s verdict tell us about Anderson’s arrival at Manchester City?

The Scholes comparison is not one Parker would deploy lightly, and the care with which he has framed it – “a different version” rather than a straight comparison – suggests a genuine and considered assessment rather than hyperbole, with the underlying point being that Anderson shares the same quality of selfless, relentless, technically assured midfield play that made Scholes so indispensable to the teams he served.

Parker’s observation that Anderson’s game will “improve” at Manchester City because of the calibre of players he will train and compete alongside daily is a compelling one, and it aligns closely with the logic that director of football Hugo Viana and Maresca have applied throughout their recruitment approach this summer – building a squad where the collective environment raises individual performance rather than accommodating it.

The description of Anderson as someone whose opponents “talk about” before games is perhaps the most telling detail in the whole assessment, identifying a player who already occupies a space in the minds of rival managers and midfielders even before he has kicked a ball in a Manchester City shirt – a distinction that speaks to the level of respect the 23-year-old has already commanded across the Premier League and beyond.

Whether Anderson can sustain the consistency that Parker identifies as the defining challenge of the next chapter of his career will only become clear once Maresca’s first competitive season begins in earnest at the Etihad Stadium, but the quality and conviction of the endorsements arriving from across the game suggest that those who have watched him most closely expect nothing less.