Manchester City are close to being able to announce the signing of Elliot Anderson but there is other important business
Elliot Anderson is on his way to City
Elliot Anderson is on his way to City
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Elliot Anderson's transfer to Manchester City is practically done. A £116m fee has been agreed with Nottingham Forest and the player is set to finalise his side of things in the coming days.
One aspect that has to be worked around is the World Cup. As England boss Thomas Tuchel reiterated again on Friday, any transfer business is fine to be completed but must be around the schedule of the national team.
That explains why the last bits of Anderson's move are set to be sorted now the Panama game is out of the way. However, once that is sorted City have another big decision on their hands.
Anderson would be a marquee signing in any summer but is the first signing since Pep Guardiola left after a decade in charge at the Etihad. The 23-year-old is an excellent choice to mark the next chapter for City.
He should also, though, be the first signing for new manager Enzo Maresca. Anderson will be fundamental to Maresca's side for the coming season and many more after being backed for the long term.
The issue is that Maresca has not yet been announced as City manager as the Blues continue to work out a deal with Chelsea to allow him to be appointed. This isn't a case of City's production team losing the giant flag to accompany an announcement video as there are still significant things to be sorted.
Anderson should be able to be announced in days, but City will have to make a decision as to whether they want to do that if they are not yet in a position to be able to confirm Maresca officially. Whatever decision they make, they will also have to make sure that Forest are happy with the timing.
In one sense, it doesn't really matter if Anderson is announced before Maresca. The pair will still end up working together, and it won't be long before nobody will remember or care what order everything happened in during this summer.
Blues bosses care about order as well as optics though, and it may look strange to be launching life after Guardiola with a player rather than a manager. It certainly wasn't the way the club planned to do things before Maresca's situation took much longer than it was first hoped it would.
City fans know that there are two major announcements waiting, but which order they come in and how soon remains to be seen.