Man Utd are in the market to sign a replacement for Casemiro this summer and Elliot Anderson is on their shortlist.
United are interested in Anderson.
Nottingham Forest manager Vitor Pereira admitted he doesn’t know whether Manchester United target Elliot Anderson will stay at his club this summer. United are set to sign a replacement for Casemiro, and Anderson is high on their midfield shortlist.
Anderson is expected to start alongside Declan Rice in midfield for England at this summer’s World Cup, and it looks unlikely he will still be a Forest player by the start of next season.
Manchester City are hopeful of signing Anderson for what looks set to be Enzo Maresca’s first campaign in charge at the Etihad, but Pep Guardiola’s departure could create an opening for United to land the 23-year-old.
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Speaking after Forest’s final game of the Premier League season, Pereira was asked whether Anderson would stay. “I don’t have the answer. If you ask me if he deserves the best clubs in the world, he deserves,” he told Sky Sports.
“He has a lot of quality, he is a talent. But he is our player and I am very happy with him. The market is the market, I cannot predict the market. I know we want to keep the same players, to bring two or three players to help us balance the squad. In the end, we’ll see.”
Forest played in the Europa League this season, but they were drawn into a relegation battle in the Premier League. “This season was very, very tight in terms of the battle of relegation,” Pereira added.
“Teams like Tottenham, West Ham, Leeds, Nottingham Forest, this season was very tough. To be safe three games before the end of the season, the last two games are very difficult in my experience.
“We did well, we competed, we went in a semi-final. It is not easy with the two competitions, struggling in one and trying to move forward in another. In the end, I am proud. We are proud of our work, of our supporters. I believe that next season we can go and do good things.”
United can offer Anderson the chance to play Champions League football next term. The Reds sealed a return to Europe’s elite competition with three games to spare thanks to Michael Carrick’s impact since his arrival in January.
Carrick’s side ended the campaign with a 3-0 win against Brighton, despite having nothing to play for, leading the United boss to say: “As you can imagine, we’re delighted. Absolutely delighted in so many ways with today and particularly over the last two or three weeks when the position’s kind of cemented.
“We know where we are in the league and it’s easy to drift and lose a bit of momentum, lose a little bit of focus and we’ve kind of treated it as it’s all one season going into the next one really.
“It’s not ended here and I think we want to keep building and keep pushing. That’s credit to the players, it’s not easy to do it as much as we’d expected and hoped for it. I’ve been there and it’s not easy to find that spark.
“But the hunger was there, you could see it and it was probably the toughest team to play that type of game in the heat, the way they move the ball. So it needed a really strong mentality, which I was absolutely delighted with because that’s the foundation we need to show and have to give us the confidence to move forward.”
