Manchester United wanted Elliot Anderson. They just didn’t want him at any cost. The club expressed serious interest in Nottingham Forest’s midfielder but drew a hard line: the deal only made sense if Forest accepted a £70 million valuation.
Forest, as it turned out, had very different math in mind. And the player who United flagged as a potential long-term leader ended up crossing Manchester, just to the blue side of the city.
The bid that never was
United’s approach was straightforward. They identified Anderson as a top target, assessed his value at £70 million, and communicated that figure to Nottingham Forest. The problem was that Forest’s owner Evangelos Marinakis was personally managing the negotiations and had no interest in entertaining bids at that level.
Marinakis reportedly wanted to push Anderson’s price tag beyond the previous British transfer record of £125 million, set by Alexander Isak. When it became clear that Forest wouldn’t budge, United chose to walk away entirely rather than enter a bidding war. Sources indicated the club simply wasn’t willing to chase an escalating price, no matter how highly they rated the player.
