And so farewell the Geordie Maradona. There’s been some uncertainty over the overnight price quoted for the sale of Elliot Anderson to Manchester City. Was it £116 million or £130 million?
I get confused by football finances these days. Long gone are the days when Trevor Francis was sold for one million pounds and you knew where you stood. There were reportedly no add-ons, no obligations, and no hidden costs down the line (although technically it wasn’t a one million pound transfer fee…).
But anyway, back to the Geordie Maradona. He’s been bloody brilliant for Forest hasn’t he? A £35 million pound purchase to a £130 million pound sale doesn’t tell the whole story.
he weird PSR deal that saw the Greek fella head in the other direction towards Newcastle makes it more like a £15 million pound purchase being flogged on for whatever the final price is. Job’s a good ‘un.
I remember hearing loads of hype over the summer when we signed him. Endless podcasts raved about how good he was. I have to confess I’d never heard of him.
There wasn’t even any consensus as to where he would play. It seemed at first that he would be an MGW in waiting. The thinking was that we would get one more season out of Morgan, then Elliott would be able to step up and fill in that central role in the middle of the pitch.
I’m not even sure he knew what his exact role would be at Forest but it’s testament to the player that he pretty much manufactured it for himself. He found a way of playing that made it impossible for our long list of Head Coaches to leave him out. Put simply, he just dominated everything in midfield.
He goes about the job so quietly as well. You don’t want to get too star-struck over these extremely well-paid footballers, but judging by his profile and his rare media interventions, he seems like a thoroughly bloody well-rounded and decent young man. That’s a rarity in the modern game.
Unfortunately I’ve never got to actually see him play live. Getting a Forest ticket at the World Famous these days is near on impossible. Watching him on the telly gives you some degree of understanding as to how he dominates games. I would have loved to have seen him at the World Famous up front and how he can dictate the entire play around the pitch.
I think Forest played a blinder here. We turned down the initial two bids. It seems that the intention was always to agree to the third bid. Man City probably knew that as well. Both sides played the game well.
It works out well for Forest, saying they sold a player for the current highest British transfer fee. Ditto for Man City. He is a marquee signing for what is supposedly a marquee club in English football.
It does leave us with a what next question. We simply can’t replace him, but the money gives us options to buy up to two or even three players that we need to fill that gap.
And so farewell to the Geordie Maradona. In decades to come we will be speaking about him in the same hushed tones as the likes of Archie Gemmill, Neil Webb and Roy Keane, although to be honest I think he tops that list even now.