\n<\/p>\n
Elliot Anderson has called Manchester City the \u201ckings of Manchester\u201d after completing his \u00a3116m move to the club from Nottingham Forest.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old was a key part of England\u2019s third-place finish at the World Cup, having been an ever-present for Forest in the Premier League last season. Before Morgan Rogers\u2019 \u00a3117m transfer to Chelsea from Aston Villa on Tuesday, Anderson\u2019s fee was the record for a British player.<\/p>\n The midfielder is taking a three-week break after his exploits in North America but is clearly relishing the prospect of playing for City, picking out the first Manchester derby of the new season on 13 September as a standout fixture. He may well be in line for a hot reception from the Old Trafford faithful given his claims about City\u2019s superior status.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of the biggest derbies in the world and for as long as I\u2019ve known Manchester, City have been the kings of Manchester,\u201d Anderson said in an interview on City\u2019s website. \u201cIt\u2019ll be a great fixture and I can\u2019t wait to be involved in something like that.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re winners, they\u2019re relentless, and that\u2019s the sort of team I want to be a part of \u2013 champions and people who win trophies,\u201d Anderson said of his reason for signing for City.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the last 10, 12 years, they\u2019ve dominated, so that\u2019s why I wanted to join. It\u2019s happened quite quick, but I think I always believed I could get to this point and this is where I want to be. Now that I\u2019m here, I\u2019ll keep pushing and try to take this club forward.\u201d Anderson\u2019s rise has been rapid, with his England debut coming as recently as last September, in a 2-0 victory over Andorra.<\/p>\n The Tyneside-born player, who began his career at Newcastle before joining Forest for \u00a335m in July 2024, believes there is much more to come. \u201cI\u2019m only 23, so I\u2019ve got plenty of time to get to my best levels and I definitely think I\u2019m not there yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The deal was agreed three weeks ago but finalised this week after the player\u2019s return from the World Cup. Anderson has signed until 2031 and is City\u2019s first major signing since Enzo Maresca succeeded Pep Guardiola as manager. He is looking forward to working with the Italian. \u201cI\u2019ve watched his teams over the past couple of years and spoke to a few of the lads from Chelsea and they all rate him very highly,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n \u201cI like to be intense when I play and use lots of energy around the pitch and get the fans going. So, I think that\u2019ll be good.\u201d<\/p>\n Kevin De Bruyne, who departed City two summers ago, is an idol for Anderson. \u201cGrowing up through the academy at Newcastle, I\u2019ve always wanted to play like him,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cI\u2019ve watched him all the time and to be sat here in the team that he was doing it for is so special.\u201d<\/p>\n Anderson led the Premier League last season in most touches (3,300), most duels won (297) and winning possession (306). \u201cI think I bring a bit of everything. I bring quality, physicality, energy,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d like to think I\u2019d get them (the City supporters) excited, get them off their feet and bring energy to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n Anderson spent half a season on loan at Bristol Rovers in 2022 and became known as the \u201cGeordie Maradona\u201d among supporters. \u201cThey started that and it sort of stuck everywhere I\u2019ve been,\u201d he said. \u201cIt makes me happy and it gives me real confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n Reflecting on the World Cup, Anderson added: \u201cIt was disappointing, but I loved it personally. We had the whole country behind us and we\u2019ve done so well but just fell short. From a personal point of view, I thought I did pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elliot Anderson has called Manchester City the \u201ckings of Manchester\u201d after completing his \u00a3116m move…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}