The Times: £116m England int’l wanted to join Man Utd this summer but INEOS refused to meet club’s valuation
Elliot Anderson reportedly wanted to join Manchester United in the summer transfer window.
According to The Times, the Red Devils submitted a bid worth £85 million for the midfielder, but were ‘laughed out of town’ by Nottingham Forest.
United were only willing to shell out a fee as high as £89m, before Manchester City entered the race and met all of Forest’s demands with a £116m offer.
What happened in the Elliot Anderson saga?
City eventually signed Anderson on a five-year deal, having prioritised him to kickstart their midfield rebuild following the departures of Rodri, Tijjani Reijnders and Nico Gonzalez.
They went on to add young starlet Ayyoub Bouaddi (£86m) from Lille and, in the dying embers of the window, paid a whopping £125m to bring in Enzo Fernandez from Chelsea.
Meanwhile, United settled on the arrivals of Andrey Santos, Carlos Baleba and Youri Tielemans, totalling £155m including any potential add-ons.
INEOS had had their sights set on Anderson for essentially the entire season before his move, so it was perhaps a surprise to supporters that they allowed City an almost free run at his signature when the race started heating up.
Who else were United looking at?
United were also, at one stage, targeting then-West Ham star Mateus Fernandes.
Once again, they held talks to gauge how a deal could look with the Irons, before Tottenham Hotspur swooped in and submitted an £86m proposal.
Spurs did the same with Sandro Tonali just days later, with the former Magpie another candidate on the Reds’ shortlist – before the London outfit signed him in a club-record £100m deal from Newcastle United.
