'One-buyer market' may slightly reduce Anderson fee - Storey
- Published
The fee Nottingham Forest may eventually receive for Elliot Anderson may be "slightly deflated" because of there being a "one-buyer market" for the midfielder, says The i's chief football writer Daniel Storey.
Manchester City had had an opening bid for Anderson rejected by Nottingham Forest on Wednesday, but there is a growing expectation the 23-year-old will leave the City Ground this summer.
A potential fee could be a record for a British player and eclipse the £105m Arsenal paid West Ham for Declan Rice in 2023.
"We have created an environment to let an exceptional footballer be the best version of himself, better than anyone thought he would be," Storey told BBC Radio Nottingham's Shut Up And Show More Football podcast.
"One of the problems Forest have is they simultaneously want the fee to be as high as possible, which is absolutely right, and also would like a bit of a bidding war.
"Premier League clubs now selling at high prices generally takes out the world outside England bar two or three teams. There has never been reported interest from Bayern Munich or Real Madrid or Barcelona so we have a Premier League market."
Storey continued: "Manchester United were really keen but they have two or probably three midfielders to buy so I don't think they can go as high as the fee would be. So, effectively, we have a one-buyer market, which is Manchester City. In a one-buyer market, it is hard to avoid the fee being slightly deflated than what you'd like as City can wait it out and do their business towards the end of the window.
"But, City may well also want to do business early and the fee, even if it is slightly deflated, I think will still be at least £90m which is an enormous amount of money.
"We know he's going, we know he has to go, but it's all about how Forest replace him. It's hard to do when he's still at the club as it shows they're really happy to sell Anderson and then the fee drops a little again.
"There has been no sense of him kicking up a fuss, he seems a really good guy, so we are now just in that negotiation phase. My gut feeling is it will be around £100m which somehow both doesn't feel quite enough but is also more than double what Forest have ever sold a player for."
