Man Utd butchering Elliot Anderson transfer as Man City get decisive update from Fabrizio Romano | OneFootball

Manchester United appear to be making a mess of their attempts to sign Elliot Anderson if the latest update from Fabrizio Romano is anything to go by, and no such missteps are being made by Manchester City.

Nottingham Forest and England ace, Elliot Anderson, is virtually guaranteed to be one of the biggest transfer stories of the summer.

Less than two years on from Newcastle’s £35m sale to Forest, the classy midfielder, 23, is now projected to be worth close to £100m.

Newcastle would love nothing more than to bring Anderson back and rectify their mistake, but if Anderson does change clubs at season’s end, all the signs point to Manchester.

Both Man Utd and Man City hold Anderson in extremely high regard. The classy midfielder is widely known to be one of Man Utd’s three top targets for the summer, with the others being Carlos Baleba and Adam Wharton.

City too love what they’ve seen from Anderson who looks on course to start for England at the 2026 World Cup.

And reading between the lines of Fabrizio Romano’s latest update on the player on Thursday night, Anderson may well be a City player by the time he’s starring for England in north America.

After declaring on X that Man City will “for sure” sign a high profile midfielder this summer, the trusted reporter provided further details on City’s plans via his YouTube channel.

“A serious target, very high on the shortlist of Man City for the summer window is Elliot Anderson,” declared Romano.

“Still nothing done or decided, it’ll depend on Forest, whether they’re in the Premier League or not, it’ll depend on the price, on the player… several things.

“But Man City have already started thinking about midfielders for their shortlist and on their list, Anderson is a name that is absolutely high.

“He’s one of the players under consideration for the midfielder role, and from my understanding, he’s in the top three, maybe even top two of targets for Man City this summer, in terms of midfielders.”

Romano added: “I expect City to make moves for the player in the next weeks and months, because he’s super appreciated.”

Perhaps worryingly for Man Utd, Romano then went on to state the Red Devils still haven’t decided which of their three top targets – Anderson, Wharton, Baleba – they wish to pursue with the greatest vigour yet.

Part of the reason why, according to Romano, is because United still haven’t determined who their next permanent manager will be.

It would make little sense to sign the player most suited to Michael Carrick, for example, only to them appoint a different manager like Roberto De Zerbi who might favour a different profile in midfield.

As such, Man Utd are already running the risk of being left behind by Man City, who as they showed in the January window, do not hesitate when they see an opening.

City famously snatched Marc Guehi out of Liverpool’s clutches despite the centre-back coming within a whisker of joining the Reds last summer.

But rather than thunder in with another bid in January, Liverpool were content to run the gauntlet and wait until Guehi became a free agent at season’s end.

That opening was all City needed, and when the winter window shut, City had signed an England international who’ll be a mainstay in their team for the rest of the 2020s and beyond.

If Man Utd don’t buck up their ideas and quickly, they could lose out to Man City for Anderson, just as Liverpool did with Guehi.

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