Elliot Anderson: Nottingham Forest's £100m Midfielder
At the City Ground, Nottingham Forest have grown used to bigger clubs circling overhead. This summer will be no different. But prising their crown jewels out of Trentside is another matter entirely.
Owner Evangelos Marinakis has a reputation that precedes him. He does not blink in negotiations, he does not bow to badges, and he certainly does not open the door unless Forest stand to gain significantly. Anyone knocking for Elliot Anderson will find that out quickly.
Anderson, the £100m midfielder who does it all
Interest from Manchester City and Manchester United is real enough, but the numbers being whispered around Anderson tell their own story. A nine-figure fee. £100 million and change. That is the level Forest believe reflects a midfielder expected to light up this summer’s World Cup under Thomas Tuchel with England.
If that valuation is met, Forest’s coffers would swell. The club could reinvest heavily, reshaping the squad on the back of one marquee sale. For now, though, Anderson remains the kind of player you build around, not cash in on.
Those who have watched him closely are convinced. Speaking in association with Bally Bet, former Forest midfielder Jack Colback did not bother with caveats when asked what Anderson is – and what he could become.
“He’s just very, very good. He’s a very old-fashioned kind of midfielder, where he does everything,” Colback said. In an era obsessed with labels – No.6, No.8, No.10 – Anderson tramples over the taxonomy. He tackles. He dictates. He creates. He breaks into the box.
“Elliot just does it all. His defensive play is fantastic. On the ball, he dictates play and is very good. He is creative and he also gets forward. He’s one of those that does it all. He could be one of the very best.”
If he delivers on North American soil at the World Cup, that price tag might start to look less like a warning and more like a starting point.
A new core at the City Ground
Crucially, Anderson is not alone. Forest have quietly assembled a spine that feels both modern and unmistakably theirs.
Morgan Gibbs-White has already become a talisman in the Garibaldi, a No.10 with swagger and substance who has dragged the club through difficult spells. Alongside him, Brazilian centre-half Murillo has emerged as the defensive pillar around which Forest hope to build.
Colback was still at the City Ground when Murillo first walked through the door. The first impression was of a defender who might scare his own fans as much as opposition forwards.
“I've watched him a few times. Live in the stadium, he's one of them who kind of looks like he's got a mistake in him,” Colback admitted. But that is only half the picture. “He reads the game so well and reacts so well.”
The injuries that have disrupted Murillo’s season told their own tale. Forest missed him, and it showed in the team’s form. When he plays, they look more assured, more ambitious in possession, more like a side with a plan.
Colback points to that as evidence of a club finally getting recruitment right. “They [Forest] have missed him a little bit this season with injuries, and that showed a bit in the form. But I think it's credit to the club, the recruitment has been really, really good for a good few years now - credit to the owner for that.”
Murillo has now committed his future to Forest with a new contract that runs to 2030. Honour that deal and he, like Gibbs-White, has the platform to become a modern legend at the City Ground, not just a stepping stone story.
Legends, vets and the lifeblood of Forest
That word – legend – still carries weight on the banks of the Trent. Some of those who already own that status have been back in familiar surroundings recently, including Colback, a key part of the 2022 promotion side that dragged Forest back into the Premier League.
The club’s front-of-shirt partner, Bally Bet, has been trying to shine a light a little further down the pyramid. Their mission: give long-serving grassroots players the recognition they rarely receive.
To do that, Forest great Mark Crossley was handed a task with real soul to it – compile the first ever All-Stars Vets squad, a team built from the true characters of the grassroots game, the men who have kept Sunday mornings and local pitches alive for years.
Crossley did not work alone. Other familiar Forest faces joined him as he pieced together the Bally Bet All-Stars, a squad that swapped muddy recreation grounds for the City Ground itself.
On May 28, those veterans walked out of the tunnel and onto the same pitch that Anderson, Gibbs-White and Murillo now call home, treated to the full Premier League experience as they faced a side of hand-picked Forest legends.
For one night, the line between past and present blurred. On one side, the heroes who built Forest’s story. On the other, the kind of players who might yet write the next chapter – if the City Ground can hold onto them long enough.
