Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Manchester City are “confident” of signing Elliot Anderson, with Patrick Vieira and Harry Maguire giving their glowing verdicts on the Nottingham Forest midfielder.
On June 11, TEAMtalk’s transfer correspondent, Fraser Fletcher, reported that Man City have had an opening bid for Anderson rejected.
Sources told us that Man City, who will have Enzo Maresca as their new manager following the departure of Pep Guardiola, offered a total of £121million for Anderson.
Forest turned down that bid, with the Tricky Trees looking for £130m.
We reported at the time that Man City and Forest remained in talks over Anderson, who is playing for England at the ongoing 2026 World Cup.
Fabrizio Romano has now revealed that Man City are confident of getting a deal done for the former Newcastle United midfielder.
The transfer guru has reported that the deal is in the final stages, with the 23-year-old ready to undergo a medical in the USA, if everything goes according to plan.
Romano posted on X at 8am on June 19: “Manchester City are confident to get Elliot Anderson deal done, now at the final stages after work behind the scenes.
“New round of talks to take place for the English midfielder who would undergo medical in the US before joining #MCFC if all goes to plan.”
Anderson is one of the best midfielders in the Premier League, and Man City fans will be over the moon if the deal goes through.
The Etihad Stadium faithful will be even more encouraged to learn that former Arsenal and Man City star Patrick Vieira believes that Anderson is a “complete midfielder”.
Vieira, who is one of the greatest midfielders the Premier League has ever seen, made the comments about Anderson on The Rest of Football podcast on Netflix while analysing his performance in England’s 4-2 win against Croatia at the 2026 World Cup this week.
Vieira said about Anderson: “Yeah, you have different options in the French squad, but I have to say in England, in the midfield, I think they are more complete.
“And Anderson had everything that I like about the holding midfielder because he is really aggressive, and he’s a ball winner.
“And he dictated the game, but even in possession, he’s not hiding.
“He’s trying to find the space and he wants the ball.
“And then I think something that he is doing better than our midfielder is that he’s always trying to play forward and he’s trying to break the lines, and tried to find the players in between the lines.
“And that is something quite really special, and I think he’s quite a really complete midfielder.”
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Harry Maguire compares Elliot Anderson to Declan Rice
Like Vieira, Manchester United defender Harry Maguire, too, has been hugely impressed with Anderson.
Maguire has compared Anderson to Arsenal and England international midfielder Rice.
Our transfer insider, Graeme Bailey, reported on June 11 that Man Utd have abandoned their pursuit of Anderson because of the £130m transfer demands made by Forest.
Maguire said about Anderson: “I’ve heard there are many clubs abroad after him as well, but I must say, I was not in the England squad for 12 months, and I was interested to go in in March and just see there were 10, 15 new players who I hadn’t played with.
“And I knew he was a good player, and in training, he impressed me even more than I knew.
“He’s got absolutely everything.
“He reminds me of Declan Rice in some aspects in terms of his profile.
“He’s good on the ball; he can drive with the ball.
“He’s got an eye for goal as well, to say he’s playing number six at the minute, but he’s one of those, I think he could play 10, 8, 6. He’s that good.”
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