Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest were gathered around the negotiating table last week as they thrashed out a deal for Elliot Anderson.
The Magpies eventually let the 21-year-old academy graduate leave in a £35million deal, but there were talks of Anthony Elanga coming our way as part of the deal.
Nottingham Forest remained steadfast in their refusal to allow Elanga to leave but Newcastle still remain keen on the 22-year-old.
In fact, one journalist believes that the Magpies are frontrunners to sign Elanga despite Nottingham Forest's reluctance to sell.
Speaking on NUFC Matters, journalist Ben Jacobs says that Forest are keen to keep hold of the winger who absolutely obliterated Dan Burn last season, but the Magpies won't go away without a fight.
“Elanga will be in demand and at the moment it’s fair to say that Newcastle are one of the frontrunners. The challenge is that before PSR they were leveraging Elliot Anderson and Forest were having none of it.
“The Forest position remains that they want to hold onto Elanga and only a big offer will change that.”
We're not sure what a 'big offer' would be in Nottingham Forest's eyes but given how Anderson went to them for £35million and they wouldn't be drawn on a quasi-swap deal involving Elanga, logic would dictate that they value him higher than £35million.
The Sweden international played 39 times for Forest last season scoring five goals and providing nine assists. Interestingly the bulk of his goals came from playing on the left wing whereas the majority of his assists came from playing down the right.
If Newcastle were to get their man, we imagine that he would be deployed mostly as a right winger. Mostly. However, it sounds like there is a long way to go before we can start thinking about that.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
14 | 18 | 35 |
2 |
Chelsea
|
15 | 17 | 31 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
15 | 14 | 29 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
15 | 6 | 27 |
5 |
Nottingham Forest
|
15 | 1 | 25 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
15 | 0 | 25 |
7 |
Brighton
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
8 |
Bournemouth
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
9 |
Brentford
|
15 | 3 | 23 |
10 |
Fulham
|
15 | 2 | 23 |
11 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
15 | 12 | 20 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
15 | -2 | 20 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
15 | 1 | 19 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
15 | -9 | 16 |
15 |
Everton
|
14 | -7 | 14 |
16 |
Leicester
|
15 | -9 | 14 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
18 |
Wolves
|
15 | -14 | 10 |
19 |
Ipswich
|
15 | -13 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
15 | -20 | 5 |