Manchester City have completed the purchase of Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for a fee of £116million ($153m). It took weeks of negotiations, during which Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis was minded to walk away and even considered selling Anderson to another club for less money, with City CEO Ferran Soriano ultimately intervening to push the deal through.City regard Anderson as the ideal fit for their midfield and have made him their record signing, and the most expensive British player in history. He completed his medical with English Football Association staff in Kansas City while with the national team at the World Cup, following a breakthrough in negotiations at the end of last week.The Athletic has spoken to sources with knowledge of the deal — all of whom spoke under the condition of anonymity to protect relationships. Conversations had been ongoing for a while, but at a UEFA dinner before the Champions League final, City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak spoke to Marinakis about signing Anderson. The idea this summer, according to sources, was that Marinakis wanted any deal for Anderson to exceed the £105m that Arsenal spent on Declan Rice in 2023. City had been wary that dealing with Marinakis could be tricky, and after the initial discussions with Al Mubarak, the Forest owner asked for more money than had been discussed.According to sources close to both clubs, Marinakis wanted a deal worth £126m, with an initial £106m being topped up by £20m in easily achievable bonuses, such as playing a certain number of games and winning trophies that Forest considered realistic. The record figure spent by a British club is the £125m Liverpool paid Newcastle United for Alexander Isak last summer.City preferred add-ons that included winning the Champions League, which Forest refused as they did not feel it was an especially realistic prospect. When Rice joined Arsenal, one element of the add-ons related to Champions League qualification, rather than winning the competition, and this was part of Forest’s thinking.Elliot Anderson underwent his Manchester City medical while with England at the World Cup (Nicolo Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images)Sources at Forest say Marinakis was always open to selling Anderson this summer — and believe that Anderson may be the only major sale Forest make — but the owner was determined to get a top price. In the middle of June, he gave the impression he would be prepared to sell Anderson to another club for a lower price.With the deal still to be concluded, Manchester United enquired and even discussed the prospect of making Anderson captain at some point in the future. United saw him as having that kind of leadership ability in the years to come, albeit no guarantees were made and he would have had to deliver on the pitch. But in the end, they decided the transfer fee involved was more than they wanted to pay.With Marinakis playing what one source with knowledge of the negotiations described as “an incredible game of chess”, Soriano stepped in — talks were previously conducted on the City side by director of football Hugo Viana — and agreed to pay a guaranteed £116m. The deal was ultimately done by extremely senior people from the different parties: Marinakis from Forest, Soriano from City and Anderson’s agent, David Manasseh, rather than sporting directors or staff working in agencies.