Elliot Anderson acknowledges twist of fate that took him from Newcastle United to the England team
There's little doubt in anyone's mind that Elliot Anderson is one of the more talented footballers to come out of Newcastle United's academy in recent years.
Along with Lewis Miley, Anderson embodies the chant of 'He's one of our own' more than any other, so it really stung when Newcastle sold him to Nottingham Forest for just £35 million.
PSR forced the club into a sale they would never have made otherwise, and it's one that Eddie Howe has publicly spoken about, saying that he never would have contemplated letting Anderson leave were it not for PSR.
Like pretty much every other Newcastle United fan, we would definitely have preferred it if the tricky midfielder had stayed on Tyneside.
Elliot Anderson knows that without his move to Nottingham Forest, he wouldn't be an England star
However, we have often said that the move was probably the best thing that could have happened for the player himself, as he got the opportunity to play regularly at Nottingham Forest and improve consistently.
Without those minutes that he likely wouldn't have got at Newcastle, given he had Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Joelinton ahead of him in the pecking order, he probably wouldn't have been picked up for the England first team. That's something that Anderson himself has now acknowledged in an interview with the Daily Mail.
"‘I wouldn’t be in an England shirt if I hadn’t moved. A great group of players and staff have helped me get there, showing people what I can do on the pitch because obviously I didn't manage to do that too much in Newcastle. I'm really thankful."
A return to St James' Park in the near future seems very unlikely
Now that all eyes are on Anderson after his meteoric rise at Forest and with England, rumours of a return to Newcastle have been swirling for months, and Eddie Howe hasn't done much to quell those flames with the way he talks so fondly about Anderson.
In reality, though, it is going to take an astronomical offer to get Anderson away from The City Ground, and it's likely going to be out of Newcastle's reach.
We expect that Anderson is going to be a player who is spoken about a lot during the summer transfer window, and Newcastle's name will be in the mix, but we wouldn't hold our breath that he'll return just yet ... but we really hope we're wrong.
