Newcastle United have had to learn a painful £116m lesson — it must never be repeated. Elliot Anderson's impending move to Manchester City should make Newcastle's decision makers of 2024 wince.
Anderson's Journey from Newcastle to World Cup Star
Geordie spellbinder Elliot Anderson is usually out of the country when he gets transferred. He was on a family holiday in Portugal a couple of years back as a panicky Newcastle United hurriedly sold him to Nottingham Forest to balance their financial books in a move they have regretted to this day. Forest had to fly him to the Midlands double quick to rush through the pen and ink details and then lay on a car to get Elliot back home to Tyneside. The family car was still parked up at Newcastle Airport.
Now Anderson is on foreign soil once again starring for England in the World Cup finals such has been the blossoming of talent given away on the cheap. As before when with United his professional life has significantly changed during a trip abroad — Manchester City agreed an eye watering £116m fee, the biggest ever for a British born player, sparking a medical in the land of the stars and stripes which was understandably held up until after England completed their group matches against Panama.
A Rise to Superstardom
What a nosebleed rise to super stardom. This is the same unassuming young man who used to kick a ball around with his elder brothers before emerging as an outstanding player at Valley Gardens Middle School, then at the famous Wallsend Boys Club, where other future England internationals like Alan Shearer, Peter Beardsley and Michael Carrick sharpened their skills. Elliot shed tears of disappointment when forced to leave his boyhood club Newcastle but now with hindsight it was the best thing that could have happened to him. With automatic selection came an opportunity to grow and flourish.
That resulted in him quickly becoming Thomas Tuchel's go-to man and again Anderson came out smelling of roses. He qualified for Scotland through his dad's side of the family and played for them at age-group level but resisted increasing persuasion from former Newcastle coach Steve Clarke to go to the States with the Tartan Army and is currently there with the country of his birth.
Newcastle's Costly Mistake
United literally gave away the most precious thing a club can possess — one of their own bursting with God given world class talent. Not since we went through a period of greed and short sightedness when allowing future superstars Peter Beardsley, Paul Gascoigne and Chris Waddle — Geordies all — to leave in the blink of an eye have we pawned our crown jewels in the way we have with Elliot Anderson. So what will be our net gain for developing the Geordie Maradona? A miserly £15m. Yes, fifteen mill, a tip from a grateful beneficiary not a slice of a big fat cake.
Dig into Anderson's figures and you'll see what I mean. Forest paid £35m for Geoff Allen's grandson but United were forced to take their reserve keeper Odysseas Vlachodimos at £20m to get the deal done on financial fair play day. That meant in effect Forest had shelled out only £15m. What is just as galling is that Newcastle failed to attach a safety net to transactions. They never thought to insert a sell-on clause and so Forest have made an astonishing £100m clear profit in two years without having to give any of it away as we had to do with Anthony Gordon's £70m. Their hard nosed chairman Evangelos Marinakis looks like a financial genius while we play the role of tucked up patsies! All we can hope for now as way of a minute consolation is that we can claw back a few million by selling Vlachodimos but it would only be peanuts.
Lessons for the Future
Marinakis jerks all the strings at Forest, and a few more besides, but Ross Wilson played a significant part in pulling down United's pants. Let us hope he hasn't lost the art and repays us for that awful act this summer! Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira, who played for Man City and then worked for the City Football Group in various roles, enthuses: "Anderson is always trying to play forward and trying to break the lines. He wants to find the players in between the lines. That is something really special. He's everything I like about a holding midfielder because he is really aggressive and he's a ball winner."
If you're a stats man — and everyone seems to be these days — Elliot's figures with Forest are outrageous and do indeed make him that perfect midfielder Vieira is on about. According to Opta he won possession 306 times last season, 94 more times than any other player in Europe's top five leagues. He also came out on top for the most successful duels (297) and had the most touches of the ball (3,300) throughout the top flight last term.
Protecting Homegrown Talent
May we have learned our lesson at long last and treat Lewis Miley with a lot more appreciation than we did Elliot Anderson. Or we will be looking on sorrowfully at yet another Geordie icon doing great deeds away from home. Midfield is becoming a melting pot of concern for Newcastle. Sandro Tonali WILL leave — and he may as well when he wants it so passionately — which makes it absolutely imperative that we keep our inspirational Captain Bruno and young Miley. Lewis is even more advanced than Anderson was when he was in black and white stripes. Only 20 years of age, Lewis has already made 43 starts plus another 37 as a sub — 80 appearances all in — and scored six times. He hit a significant milestone when he became the youngest ever player to score a Champions League goal for United at 19 years and 223 days.
Miley inevitably has been graduating through the England age groups playing in the under 17's, under 19's, under 20's and under 21's where he has five caps. The route to Three Lions glory is unerringly signposted. So versatile that he could play anywhere probably including goal, he finished last season suffering another injury. We wish him a speedy recovery for our sake as well as his.
